At the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), it was revealed that the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) had spent over one billion rupees to implement two programs that were not included in the annual action plan and were carried out without any proper planning.
It was disclosed that, in 2024, the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment spent more than 63 million rupees on the ‘Vigamanika Harasara’ program, which involved three provincial-level meetings with the participation of 5,000 migrant association members.
Additionally, over 1,259 million rupees were spent on the ‘Glocal Fair’ program, which aimed to provide all services offered by institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Employment at locations where beneficiaries reside, with events held throughout the island.
This information came to light during a recent COPE meeting held in Parliament on the 23rd under the chairmanship of MP Nishantha Samaraweera, to examine the Auditor General’s reports and current performance of the SLBFE for the 2022 and 2023 financial years.
During the session, the COPE Chairman pointed out that the Glocal Fair program had been launched before obtaining Cabinet approval, and that the relevant Cabinet paper was only submitted for approval while the program was already underway.
It was also noted that only around two million rupees are allocated annually for such programs, yet a massive sum of 1,259 million rupees was spent on this one. The Chairman further questioned officials on whether such a large expenditure actually fulfilled its intended objectives.
Furthermore, it was inquired how, at the start of the Glocal Fair series, a trade stall was purchased for 170,000 rupees, but later one was obtained for five lakhs (500,000 rupees).
The COPE Chairman highlighted that funds allocated for effective programs had been wasted on poorly planned and purposeless programs, leading to significant financial loss.
Moreover, it was revealed that the “Rata Viruvo” Housing Loan program, initiated in 2013 in collaboration with the Samurdhi Authority of Sri Lanka, was not implemented as per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed for five years. As a result, the SLBFE has still not received the 100 million rupees that should have been paid to it.
