A national audit office report has revealed that a private company has secured the services of prisoners serving jail terms following Cabinet approval some time ago and has exploited them to the core.
The private company concerned has made millions of rupees in profit by employing these prisoners in private worksites maintained by the said company on the pretext of rehabilitating prisoners.
Although it has been agreed that the prisoners should go through three months of basic training in the relevant field before being employed in workplaces, no such training has been provided to them.
Over 100 such prisoners have been employed by this company without providing the basic training necessary to perform their duties on work sites.
The reports said arrangements should be made to provide a national vocational level training certificate for 236 prisoners who have completed training, but no such skill certificate has been provided.
The Prisons Department has agreed to the proposal made by a private company to rehabilitate prisoners, but the said company has failed to adhere to its objectives and main tasks under this project agreement. The relevant private company had obtained 50,103 days of work from the prisoners for their work on various sites during the last 11 months. The Audit Office report said
During the period from June 15, 2020 to May 9, 2022, these prisoners were employed in various worksites of the respective private company.
The private institution had paid 400 rupees per day as salary to each prisoner for the work rendered, and in addition, 50 rupees each was credited to the prisoner welfare fund and government revenue.
However, the audit revealed that if a profit margin of at least 1000 rupees per day had been made from one prisoner, this private company would have been able to make a profit of at least 50 million rupees during the relevant period.
While having the ability to formally rehabilitate prisoners for the projects of the industrial sector in the prisons, the prison department had to face various problems in using the prisoners for the above project.
The audit office points out that although these prisoners should be given three months of initial training in the relevant field before being employed in the workplace, no initial training was provided for most of the prisoners who were taken to various worksites.
One of the main tasks of the Prison Department is to rehabilitate prisoners according to the needs of the time and create a better social environment conducive to releasing them back to society as good citizens.
Nevertheless, the department did not adhere to the timely requirement of giving them in-house training but accepted the proposal put forward by a private institution to rehabilitate the prisoners.
The Audit Office also noted that Cabinet approval had been granted for the project.
