DailyMirror
An audit conducted by the Auditor’s General’s Department has found that a VIP bungalow at Chandrika Wewa in Emibilipitiya had been renovated early this year, at a cost of Rs. 25.3 million thus violating the government’s financial regulations.
The audit had revealed that nearly one million rupees had been wasted on unnecessary purchases while Rs.970,165 had been spent to purchase grass for the overhead helipad installed on the bungalow and Rs.181,350 had been spent to purchase grass which was not used.
The audit had revealed that though seven air conditioners were purchased but only six had been fixed while a discrepancy was noticed between the serial numbers of the air conditioners purchased and those that had been installed indicating that the items had been changed or replaced.
The fate of the previous set of air conditioners has not been accounted for according to the audit report.
Several items of equipment and furniture had been purchased without comparing prices and without calling for quotations. These include a dinning table and chairs purchased at Rs. 223,000, a generator for Rs. 2,291,856, glass doors for Rs.172,000 and a television set for Rs.127,960.
The audit report said a similar procedure had been followed when awarding the contract for repairing the bungalow roof for which an amount exceeding Rs 2.9 million had been spent. No estimate had been made for this according to the audit findings.
Several other expenses had also been made in violation of the government’s financial regulations. These include a total of Rs.3.1 million paid as advances violating the financial regulation No. 371 of the government.
It was further revealed that the overall renovation had been done violating Section 2 of the Urban Development Authority Act No 41 of 1978 while the approval of the Minister of Urban Development had not been sought.
Auditor General’s Department said the project had not been included in the Urban Development Authority (UDA) work plan for 2009.