COPA criticizes Railway Dept. for audit delays and inefficiency

The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has uncovered that the Department of Railways had failed to submit audit reports properly for several years. Accordingly, the COPA has accused the department of serious inefficiency.

The Auditor General pointed out that the Audit and Management Committees had not met in the past five years and that audit inquiries had not been addressed properly. The absence of the Audit and Management Committees had meant that the opportunity to discuss and correct these issues had been missed, according to COPA.

Responding to the concerns, General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways Dhammika Jayasundara assured that he would ensure all four meetings will be held this year.

COPA further pointed out that the annual audit reports had not been submitted to Parliament, which is a serious problem. It added, “The annual report for 2020 was submitted in 2023, and the Railway Department submitted the reports for 2020, 2021, and 2022 in 2023. This indicates serious administrative weakness and inefficiency. Regardless of the government in power, public officials must fulfill their responsibilities. Furthermore, the number of audits conducted is very low, and 27 audit queries have not been answered.”

In response, Chief Financial Officer P.D.R.M. Divamani acknowledged that there had been a delay. She added that, since they had nine departments in total, gathering and submitting responses from all of them, caused delays.