He stated this when the Committee on Public Enterprises met in Parliament yesterday (July 6) under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Prof. Charita Herath to examine the reports of the Auditor General for the years 2018 and 2019 and the current performance of the Sri Lanka Public Utilities Commission.
Explaining this further, Mr. Rathnayake mentioned that this will be revealed when checking the figures on the import prices and the taxes levied by the government when buying mineral oil.
Accordingly, he pointed out that petrol and diesel can be sold in Sri Lanka at 200 rupees less than the current price. He mentioned that petrol and diesel can be sold at a price of approximately 250 rupees in this country. He also said that the government has collected a tax of 280 rupees for one liter of diesel imported on July 1.
He mentioned that this is his personal statement and that he will make the statement after consulting the data.
Accordingly, the members present asked about the awareness of the officials of the commission and the officials of the board of directors said that the board of directors of this commission is not aware of it. It was also mentioned here that the Ministry of Finance has not formally informed about this.
The members present asked Mr. Ratnayake about his qualifications to be the chairman of this commission.
Accordingly, he pointed out that as his educational qualifications, he has obtained a special degree in public administration from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and a post-graduate degree in business administration from the University of Colombo.
He said that he has also studied at Harvard University. He also stated that since 2005, he has supported the Rajapaksa family greatly for the formation of governments as their political qualifications.
The chairman of the COP committee said that the statement made by this chairman regarding the price of oil is more serious and the country's attention is drawn to this.
Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission are expected to be brought in to check on the matter in the future, said the Chairman of the Cope Committee.
Also, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has issued a lengthy notice regarding the purchase of a 2005 Benz type car from a company called General Business (Private) Ltd on a monthly rental basis without fuel or driver for a period of one year from December 7, 2021. was discussed.
Thus, the annual rent for this vehicle was 4,500,000 rupees and on 31 May 2022, 2,187,500 rupees had been paid to the concerned institution. But the files regarding the acquisition of this vehicle have not been submitted for audit, recommendations have been given to acquire a 15-year-old vehicle, as well as irregularities in calling for bids for the acquisition of this vehicle, and the existence of transparency issues in the payment of rent for this vehicle. The committee questioned. In particular, the COPE Committee advised the officer who signed the approval to provide money for this institution to act responsibly.
Accordingly, the Chairman of the CORP Committee recommended that an investigation be conducted and a full report submitted to the CORP Committee.
Also, although it was informed that the organizational structure and salary structure of the Public Utilities Commission should be done under the recommendations of the National Wage and Staffing Commission and the approval of the Department of Management Services and that the Minister of Finance should submit an amendment to the Cabinet and approve it, at the end of the year 2021 The COPE Committee discussed the expenditure for certain works without doing it.
In particular, the COPE Committee paid more attention to the fact that Rupees. 45,873,483 was paid to the staff of the institution under 11 types of allowances and Rupees.
Also, in order to advise the government through monitoring the performance, trends, changes in demand, etc. and to take necessary measures for regulation, the Ceylon Electricity Board should provide daily transmission summary, actual system distribution and daily distribution schedule from May 2018 to December 2019. It was also discussed about the fact that it had not been given to
In particular, attention was drawn to the electricity generation plan approved for the years 2018-2037 and the officials present mentioned that data on a new generation plan was submitted in the year 2021 and it was not approved as it did not meet the appropriate requirements. Here, the Cope Committee mentioned that when the political authorities change, problems arise due to the change of these plans, so all parties should pay more attention to this.
Furthermore, under the Power (Distribution) Performance Standards Orders mentioned in a special gazette notice issued in 2016, the commission was assigned the responsibility of preparing and implementing the series of performance rules. Thus, the work that should be implemented within 36 months after the decree came into effect, although almost 4 years have passed, the committee drew attention to the fact that even the adaptation phase, which was planned to be completed in 2018, has not been completed so far. The officials who were present mentioned that this was planned to be done in 3 phases in 3 years and it has not yet happened due to the need to change the system and the problems in the relationship between the parties involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment