The Ports Authority has removed an outstanding amount of Rs. 147746 million from its financial statements without prior permission from the Ministry of Finance or the Treasury.
The National Audit Office has listed this as part of the foreign loan obtained for the construction of the Hambantota Port.
As of November 30, 2017, the loan and the accumulated interest amount in the authority’s accounts had been removed from the financial statements. As a result, the Ports Authority failed to include the loan amount in any of the government’s accounts.
The audit office has also revealed that the foreign exchange loss from November 30th, 2017 to December 31st, 2020 in relation to this loan stood at 65,618 million rupees.
However, according to the Cabinet Memorandum entitled “Hambantota Port, Concession Agreement,” which was approved by the Ministers on August 4, 2017, the responsibility for the repayment of the loan and interest falls under the General Treasury.
As a result, beginning in 2017, the Department of Foreign Resources paid loan instalments and interest. The audit report also states that as of December 31 of last year (2021), the outstanding debt was 165,483 million rupees.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance had on several occasions requested the Chairman of the Port Authority to include this loan amount in the authority’s books.
However, by the end of last year (2021), neither the Sri Lanka Port Authority nor the Treasury had taken steps to account for the outstanding loan and the related foreign exchange loss.
This audit report was released for the year 2021 in relation to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
