Harsha renews call for submission of EPF’s 2011 accounts
Friday, 28 February 2014 04:09
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UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday said that the EPF has still not submitted its audited accounts for 2011 and not returned to restart abruptly adjourned COPA investigation for over one year.
Following is the full text of Dr. de Silva’s statement:
Proving how politicisation has ruined all aspects of governance in the trillion-rupee fund belonging to the millions of workers in the private sector, the Employers Provident Fund (EPF) has still not submitted to Parliament its audited accounts for the year 2011.
This is a serious lapse in governance and transparency particularly given the numerous allegations of fraud connected to the EPF and the stock market mafia.
The UNP first raised this issue in early 2012 and followed up during the year and then throughout 2013 both inside and out of Parliament. On my continued insistence as a member of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) the EPF was summoned to Parliament in early February 2013 for the first time in six years to examine its accounts up to 2010. However, the committee was abruptly adjourned before the substantial issues of fraud were taken up. It is deeply regrettable that the EPF has not returned to complete the COPA investigation for over one year notwithstanding numerous reminders submitted to the COPA office chaired by a cabinet minister.
In true democracies parliamentary committees are not chaired by cabinet ministers but by the opposition; and even in Sri Lanka that was the practice under the previous UNP government. On behalf of the millions of employees of the private sector the UNP demands that the EPF urgently submit its accounts for 2011 as well as for 2012 and take necessary steps to have the 2013 accounts submitted on time. We also demand that the abruptly adjourned investigation be re-summoned without further delay.
