In 2006, the Ministry purchased 224 fingerprint machines at a cost of Rs. 31.71 million. However, the Committee on Accounts had expressed its displeasure to the Ministry of Health at the Government Accounts Committee for keeping them inactive for more than 15 years.
Also, as per the Combined Plan of the Second Health Sector Development Project, a total allocation of Rs. 346 million has been made for new discoveries during the five year project period.
However, the Committee paid special attention to the fact that as at December 3, 2017, Rs. 399 million had been approved for 34 new research proposals.
The authorities also paid special attention to the fact that several of these new discovery projects were carried out by a single person. It was revealed at the meeting that this has led to the ineffectiveness of research projects.
Meanwhile, the contract for the construction of the 7-storey Millennium Ward Complex at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila was awarded to a private company on August 14, 2006 with a contract value of Rs. 398 million. It was observed in the Committee that the work of the Contractor had been completed on March 06, 2014 as the work was to be completed on March 19, 2008 but had not been completed by March 06, 2014.
The Committee paid special attention to the failure to recover Rs. 51 million paid to the contractor by that date. The Committee directed the Secretary to the Ministry of Health to take immediate action to recover this amount.
The project to construct a new building complex for the Ministry of Health was awarded to CECB on a contractual basis with a tax value of Rs. 3,896 million on 29th October 2014. It was revealed at the committee meeting.
All these expenses are not in rupees but in millions of rupees. These are public taxes. This is just a small revelation about the spending of government institutions as the public suffers from the daily economy. There are many other transactions that take place in government institutions illegally / fraudulently. But they are not revealed.
Our country has the largest number of public servants in the world. We have heard since childhood that Sri Lanka is a developing third world country. When our children grow up, they will hear the same saying. Although many years have passed, we should not be surprised that Sri Lanka is still a developing country. That is because we are the country that maintains the largest number of public servants in the world.