Twenty ministers who overspent their budgetary allocations have asked for more than Rs 2.52 billion in supplementary allocations. A Paper seeking parliamentary approval for this amount was submitted to the House by Chief Government Whip, Urban Development and Sacred Area Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, last week.
Among the proposals for which approval has been sought those of several ministries which had purchased luxury vehicles forfeited by the Department of Customs at a cost of Rs. 768,360,000/=.
A total sum of Rs 252,760,123/= had been requested by relevant ministries to cover the payment of salaries for the month of July 2009 of Kantale Sugar Industries employees, to purchase new vehicles for ministry secretaries, to settle deferred payments for equipments purchased by the Sri Lanka Air Force, to pay salaries, allowances and increased cost of living allowance to the newly recruited officers of Sri Lanka Accounts Service and Sri Lanka Planning Service and for the construction of roads.