NPC accounts distorted

Opposition leader of the Northern Provincial Council, S. Thavarajah had pointed out that the financial statements of the Northern Provincial Council as at December 31, 2014 published in the Council website contains distorted accounts.

When the Chief Minister was questioned on the anomaly by the Opposition leader, he had had replied that due to various reasons the full amount allocated by the government for 2014 could not be spent and therefore, the project will be forwarded to March of this year.

The Opposition leader had referred to the Treasury circular issued on November 4 last year no: 238/2014 which states that forwarding of finances unspent for a particularly year requires special approval from the Treasury but the CM had not responded to his statement.

We publish below the statement in full;

Distorted Accounts Published by the Northern Provincial Council

Northern Provincial Council Financial Statement as at 31^st December 2014 published in the NPC website is a distorted accounts. The Leader of Opposition pointed it out during the question time in the council on 24^th February 2015.

According to the minutes of the Board of Minister’s meeting, NPC, held on 30.12.2014, approval was granted to carry forward 128 work programmes totally amounting to Rs. 690,704,473.24 up to 31^st March 2015 and this to be undertaken out of the allocation for the year of 2014.

However in the Financial Progress report as on 31^st December 2014, published in the NPC website, the unspent amount in respect of these programmes for the year 2014 is shown as Rs. 16,520,000.00

When Leader of opposition questioned Hon Justice C.V Wigneswaran, Chief Minister and Minister of the Finance, as to how the NPC Accounts shows all the money allocated by the government for the year 2014 as expended, except Rs.16,520,000.00, as on 31.12.2014, while on the previous day the Board of Ministers had approved to carry forward programmes of works amounting to Rs.690,704,473.24 up to 31.03.2015.

The Chief Minister’s reply was that day due to various reasons they could not spent all the money allocated by the government before the end of the year, hence they decided to carry forward the work until March 2015. Further he said that he didn’t know about the accounts published in the NPC website and declined to reply why distorted figures are shown in the accounts.

When the Leader of Opposition read out the Circular instruction from the Treasury (238/2014 dated 4^th Nov. 2014 – Closing Accounts for the year 2014) that keeping in deposit of the money unspent needs special approval from the Treasury, the Chief Minister could not answer.

S. Thvarajah

Leader of Opposition,

Northern Provincial Council.