From Rs. 25 billion allocated as Samurdhi grants, Rs. 6.5 billion (Rs. 675 million) has gone missing sources say prompting Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe to order the Ministry of Finance to probe if any financial irregularity has taken place.
Accordingly, the Ministry has commenced an investigation with the Prime Ministers office said to be directly involved in it as well.
Political sources say this is the first such investigation commenced with the involvement of the Prime Minister's office regarding a possible financial fraud.
Officials appointed by Former Minister S.B Dissanayake have also been removed from the Ministry with the commencement of the investigation.
Reports say through the 2018 budget an allocation of Rs. 25 billion was reserved for the Ministry of Social services and social empowerment while Rs. 2.08 billion was allocated per month. However, the Ministry is said to have spent Rs. 13 billion in the first three months alone.
This was revealed after the Ministry was taken over by the UNP. It was also revealed that Rs. 675 million was also not distributed to Samurdhi grant holders bringing in to question if a financial irregularity had taken place prompting the order by the PM to conduct an investigation in this regard.
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