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FT
Sunday Nov 10, 2024
Monday, 5 June 2017 01:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The track record of the country’s Ministry of Finance in terms of proper bookkeeping of Government funds as well as compliance has worsened over the past four years, with successive annual reports given qualified opinion by the Auditor General’s Department.
An assessment of the Finance Ministry’s annual reports and accounts for the past decade by the Daily FT has revealed that those from 2013 (which includes the period when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Finance Ministry with veteran Dr. P.B. Jayasundera as Treasury Secretary) to 2016 had suffered qualified opinion from the Auditor General. Annual reports between 2006 and 2012 have been cleared as reflecting unqualified true and fair view by successive auditor generals.
Qualified opinion in the 2016 Annual Report appears more exhaustive whilst the 2015 Report had 12 broader items or areas of concern. The previous two years had only five items of concern as per the Daily FT survey.
Among the observations made are understatements of expenditure or revenue, non-recognition of liabilities, omissions in financial statements, failure to comply with targets set in the Fiscal Management (Responsibility) Act and revenue earned by the Provincial Councils and the expenditure incurred not included in Finance Ministry accounts.
In 2015 the borrowing limit authorised by Parliament was exceeded by Rs. 1,569,805 million whilst in 2014 it had been exceeded by Rs. 1,164,775 million. The qualified opinion during the past two years is seen by some analysts as an indictment, especially since
Sri Lanka had produced the Best Finance Minister in Asia as per the influential The Banker magazine.
See Page 8 article "Faulty Government Finance" for the qualified opinions of Auditor General’s Department on Finance Ministry Annual Report and Accounts for the years 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. (http://www.ft.lk/article/619955/Faulty-Government-Finance-)
