NMCRP requests Govt. to probe into CEA’s frauds

By Shanika Sriyananda

The National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP) yesterday called on the Government to investigate alleged fraud and corruption at the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), which comes under the Ministry of Environment.

The  NMCRP, which has written a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Minister of Environment, requesting to take immediate action to stop corruption and fraud in the CEA, has revealed that the authority is misusing a colossal amount of public money to pay salary increments to its officials defying the normal increment procedure of the Authority.  

“Over 130 officials of the CEA were given these ad hoc salary increments. We have informed the President about the CEA’s present Deputy Director General (Waste Management) who has no qualification to hold the post and the loss incurred to the Government due to paying a salary with ten salary increments since he was recruited to the CEA,” NMCRP Chairman Ranjith Vitanage said.

Vitanage said that the NMCRP charged the CEA based on a report issued by the Auditor General’s Department (AGD) on 19 September, 2017, which he claimed has revealed the facts behind the alleged irregularities in the recruitment procedure of the CEA’s Deputy Director General, his qualifications to hold the post and the amount of Government money, accounted for Rs. 1,619,200, which was paid as his salary, with 10 increments, from October 2006 to August 2017.

“In the AGD’s report, the CEA was questioned as to why it has not taken any action to recover over Rs. 1.6 million from the DDG,” Vitanage said.

Citing another report by the AGD, Witanage said that the tender procedures called for four waste recycling projects in Jaffna, Galle, Kakirawe and Pollonnaruwe under a US $33 million Korean loan agreement were also highly questionable as this comes under the purview of the DDG.

Vitanage said that NMCRP had sent the letter to the President on 27 December, 2017 requesting to take action to probe the alleged misuse of public funds by the CEA but still they have not got any reply from President Sirisena as the Minister of Environment.

“We had high hopes that the Yahapalana Government was committed to probe into corruption in the state institutions but when fraud and corruption take place in an institution that comes directly under the President and no action has been taken so far, how can we trust that this Government is committed to fight against corruption in other ministries?” Vithanage queried. He urged the Government to initiate a probe into the CEA’s financial irregularities soon similar to the probe carried out into the Bond scam. When contacted, CEA chairman Prof. Lal Dharmasiri said the alleged appointment was done in 2006 and the AGD’s report was directed to the CEAs Board, which has sought legal instructions from the Attorney General’s Department (AGD) on how to proceed with the issue of recovering the loss incurred due to the salary increments given to the DDG.

“We are waiting for the AG’s reply,” Prof. Dharmasiri said adding that the CEA has no involvement in the Korean waste recycling project as the procurement procedure is handled by the Cabinet appointed Ministry Secretaries’ Committee.