UNP demands immediate presentation of EPF 2011, 2012 and 2013 accounts

Saturday, 17 May 2014 00:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

UNP Economic Affairs Spokesperson MP Dr. Harsha de Silva has reminded the Central Bank that it has a legal and ethical obligation to produce annual accounts of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to the real owners of the money.

Highlighting the fact that audited accounts of the EPF had not been made available since 2010 to Parliament or the public, he demanded that these accounts be published immediately so that investigations into allegations of fraud can begin. Following is the full text of the UNP MP: The last set of complete audited accounts of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) available for public scrutiny is for the year 2010. It has been tabled in Parliament and is also on the EPF website. However, audited, or for that matter even unaudited, detailed accounts for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 have not yet been made available either to the Parliament or to the public. All that has been published in some newspapers are what is called ‘Financial Highlights,’ which are clearly not detailed accounts which the EPF is obligated by law to present at its earliest. With serious allegations of fraud and resulting losses in certain EPF investments in shares, the humorous statements being issued by them on their accounting treatment of ‘unrealised losses’ is nothing but a tragicomedy that is being staged with no one laughing except for the suspected white collar criminals who have made it to the list of billionaires with the ‘realised profits’. The EPF better understand that it cannot circumvent international standards in presenting its accounts. The Rs. 1.3 trillion in the EPF does not belong to the Central Bank. It belongs to the 2.4 million hardworking private sector employees who contribute part of their salary every month so that they could earn a decent return over the years and receive a significant payment at retirement in order to spend the evening of their lives without being a burden to society. The EPF Department of the Central Bank is only the custodian of the money. Beyond the legal requirement the EPF has a moral and an ethical obligation to produce annual accounts and present them as quickly as possible to the real owners of the money. All private banks regulated by the Central Bank have already published their detailed audited accounts even for 2013. But the EPF, managed by the Central Bank and administered by the Ministry of Labour, has not even done so for 2011. This is certainly not good economic governance. We demand that these accounts be published immediately so that examinations can begin on the various allegations of fraud with the objective of bringing the alleged culprits to book to recover the stolen money.