The government has incurred a loss of over 1380 million rupees owing to the controversial Chinese fertiliser vessel that never reached the shores of Sri Lanka, the Auditor General has said in a report.
The auditor general has recommended that all those involved in the transaction should be sued and the Chinese supplier, Qingdao Seawin Biotech, should be blacklisted in Sri Lanka.
The Auditor General has made this recommendation in a special audit report on the controversial transaction involving 96,000 metric tonnes of organic fertilisers from China’s Qingdao Company during the last season.
The previous regime, following the ban imposed on chemical fertilisers in the country, had taken steps to import a stock of organic fertilisers from China’s Qingdao Sea Win Biotech Company.
The two government fertiliser companies opened letters of credit to import the relevant organic fertiliser based on the recommendations given by a special committee consisting of members of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute appointed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The government audit office queries how the consignment of organic fertiliser was allowed to be shipped despite the laboratory tests proving that this fertiliser contained harmful bacteria and that it did not conform to the country’s standards.
Following that, an attempt was made to unload 20,550 tonnes of Chinese organic fertiliser at the Colombo port, but it was foiled due to plant quarantine laws. The contentious transaction was brought before the Colombo Commercial High Court, and the government later agreed to pay 75 percent of the total cost of the ship, or $6.9 million U.S., due to poor handling of the matter.
Accordingly, the Auditor General points out that the government has incurred a loss of 1,382 million rupees.
The report states that an advance payment was made without any security.
Hence, the Auditor General recommends that the responsible persons involved in this transaction be prosecuted and recover money from them. The Auditor General has also recommended that the Chinese supplier be blacklisted in Sri Lanka since the company failed to adhere to the stipulated rules and regulations of the consignee country.
