The attention of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts was drawn to an incident in which 38 goats died during the quarantine period out of 100 imported goats at Imbuladanda Goat Breeding Centre.
Meanwhile, the displeasure of the said committee was expressed regarding the non-collection of nearly two million rupees due from nine officers of the Animal Production and Health Department who had gone abroad for study, training or official duties and had not returned to work.
The heads of that department pointed out to the committee that they are taking legal action against those officers.
In the meantime, it was also revealed in the Copa Committee that a company that bid higher despite the low bids paid more than forty lakhs for the purchase of more than one lakh vaccines to the Department of Animal Production and Health.
The attention of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts was also drawn to an incident in which 38 goats died during the quarantine period out of 100 imported goats at Imbuladanda Goat Breeding Center.
It was revealed that while the approval of the procurement board for the import of goats was received in the year 2017, due to the importation in the year 2019, an additional amount of more than twenty three lakh rupees was paid due to the change in the exchange rate.
It was also revealed that there is a 60 percent shortfall in the daily liquid milk requirement in this country.
The Chairman of the Coop Committee asked about this shortage and the officials pointed out that efforts have been made to create 15000 farms that can produce hundreds of liters of milk per day. They also mentioned that about 2000 people have registered for these farms.
COPA Committee Chairman Mr. Lasantha Alagiyawanna said that it is important to prepare a national plan regarding the establishment of farms. The Chairman also recommended that a report be given on this matter within two weeks.
These matters were discussed when the Committee on Government Accounts, under the chairmanship of State Minister Mr. Lasantha Alagiyawanna, met in Parliament last (06) to examine the reports of the Auditor General for the years 2019/2020/2021 and the current performance of the Department of Animal Production and Health.
It was also discussed about the students enrolled in the diploma course at the Karadagolla Animal Husbandry Center leaving the course. Officials said that about 100 students can register for this course and an average of 82 children register to study this course per year.
But the COPA committee says that it has been revealed that twenty-five of these registered students have left the course and it also mentions that it costs approximately 26 lakh rupees to study the course for one student.
Officials said that these students leave the course when they get a job while pursuing the course. Thus, the chairman of COPA committee advised to prepare a program to recruit these students subject to an agreement.
State Ministers Prasanna Ranaweera and Kader Mastan MPs Wimalaweera Dissanayake, Jayantha Katagoda, Dr. Major Pradeep Undugoda and Isuru Dodamgoda also participated in this committee meeting.
( Lankadeepa )
