Revealing that the government has lost one hundred and thirty eight crores and twenty lakh rupees in the controversial Chinese fertilizer deal, the Auditor General has recommended that all those involved in the transaction be sued and the Chinese Kindao Seavin Biotech company be blacklisted in Sri Lanka.
The Auditor General has made this recommendation by publishing the report of the special audit conducted on the transaction of importing 96,000 metric tons of organic fertilizers from China’s Qingdao Company to Sri Lanka last season.
Due to the inability to produce organic fertilizers after the banning of chemical fertilizers in the country, the previous government had taken steps to import this stock of organic fertilizers from China’s Kindao Sewin Biotech Company.
The audit report shows how the two government fertilizer companies have opened letters of credit to import the relevant organic fertilizer stock based on the recommendations given through a special committee appointed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, despite laboratory tests confirming that these fertilizers contain harmful bacteria.
Later, despite trying to land 20,550 tons of Chinese organic fertilizer at the port of Colombo, a controversial situation arose as it was against the Plant Quarantine Law, and based on that transaction, the lawsuit brought in the Colombo High Court of Commerce has settled to pay 75% of the total cost of the ship or 6.9 million US dollars. After the govt.
Accordingly, the Auditor General points out that the government has incurred a loss of 1,382 million rupees through this transaction.
The report states that the advance payment was made without any security.
The Auditor General recommends that the responsible persons involved in this transaction be prosecuted and recover money from them and the supplier company is proposed to be blacklisted in Sri Lanka as the supplier company is not acting according to the laws of Sri Lanka and according to the agreement.