Superintendents paid over Rs 100 mn to non-existing workers

The Parliamentary watchdog committee COPE has found that some estate superintendents have siphoned off over Rs 100 million on the pretext of paying estate workers.Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises Senior Minister D. E. W. Gunasekera, addressing a workshop held at Parliamentary Complex, for the Divisional Secretaries in the Western Province on Thursday (26), said
that there were non-existing names of estate workers on the pay rolls of some estates and the superintendents had drawn their salaries.The senior minister said that the Janatha Estate Development Board had spent over Rs 440 million as lawyers’ fees during the period from 2007 to 2009, adding that those payments were suspicious.

In one instance, the COPE had found that all the figures in a balance sheet of an estate corporation were fabricated.

All these details had been handed over to the Commission to Investigate Allegations on Bribery or Corruption and to the CID for further action, the minister said

By Ajith Alahakoon
IS