PARLIAMENT

The Chairperson of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Hon. (Prof) Charitha Herath made a special statement recently (07) regarding several institutions that have been looked into by the COPE in the recent past.

In response to the revelation made by Dr. Ranee Jayamaha taking the name of Mr. Samantha Kumarasinghe a former member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka during the Central Bank of Sri Lanka investigation by the COPE Committee held recently, the Chairman tabled the remarks of Mr. Samantha Kumarasinghe which had been sent in response to the discussion held. The letter dated May 30th, 2022 containing the observations made by Mr. Samantha Kumarasinghe will be included in this Committee Report, the chair further said.

Regarding the reference made to the Nawaloka Group of Companies pertaining to the non-payment of loans during the COPE's inquiry into People's Bank, the Chairman stated that the Nawaloka Group has sent a special letter dated May 30th, 2022 stating that 12 companies under the Nawaloka Group are not involved in the above non-payment of loans tabling the letter sent.

Furthermore, during the summoning of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation of Sri Lanka, which operates under the Ministry of Health, and the Medical Supplies Division of the Ministry of Health before the COPE, investigations were carried out into the computer stock management system of the drug stock and it was based on the facts presented by the then Secretary to the Ministry Dr. Ratnayake.

A private company, EWIS Information Systems Ltd, has given a statement to the media that the COPE investigation contains a flaw and submitted its position to the Committee in a letter dated June 3rd, 2022. The Chairman said that according to EWIS Information Systems Ltd, they had obtained Rs. 223,120,458.73 million for the above system.

According to the written statement of the State Ministry of Health to the COPE, Rs. 458,591,910.6 million has been paid to EWIS Information Systems and that 66,176,348.98 million has been paid to EWIS Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Accordingly, the total amount paid was Rs. 524,768259.4 million. The COPE Chairman tabled both reports and said that the COPE had recommended to the Auditor General to conduct a special inquiry into the matter and that the report would be received within a month and that a full report in this regard would be presented to the nation.

He also thanked the heartfelt responses to the invitation extended to the IT community's youth community to address the issue of computer systems at the last committee meeting.