Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has raised concerns over the financial administration, wastewater management, research allowance payments and institutional governance of the University of Peradeniya, Ada Derana reported on Monday.
The committee, chaired by MP Nishantha Samaraweera, reviewed the Auditor General’s reports on the university for 2023 and 2024, along with its current performance, at a sitting held at the Parliament Complex.
Wastewater cost roughly triples
Officials told the committee that delays in connecting the university’s wastewater system to the Kandy Municipal Wastewater Project had pushed the estimated cost from Rs. 464 million to Rs. 1.4 billion. The committee was also told that Rs. 2 billion in JICA funding had been secured for the project.
That last figure sits awkwardly against earlier reporting. When Cabinet approved adding the university to the Kandy scheme in July, Daily Mirror reported the project cost at Rs. 2 billion, of which Rs. 800 million would be met from JICA loan funds and the remaining Rs. 1.2 billion from local resources. Ada Derana’s account attributes the full Rs. 2 billion to JICA. The report does not reconcile the two.
Sixty-eight bank accounts
COPE questioned the university over its 68 bank accounts and the numerous accounts maintained under various funds, singling out accounts that remained open after the projects they were opened for had been completed.
The committee also raised the payment of research allowances to 59 non-academic and executive staff members without approval from the Research Management Committee and without the required research reports being obtained, according to a statement issued by Parliament’s Department of Communication.
Research allowances must be used strictly for research purposes and cannot be treated as additional salaries or remuneration, the committee said. It instructed the university to regularise positions and allowances that had not received the required approval from the Department of Management Services, and to comply with government financial regulations.
COPE further called for clear Key Performance Indicators in the university’s future development plans and urged faster progress on the wastewater and solid-waste management projects and the construction of a new clinical block.
When the sitting took place is unclear
Ada Derana did not say on what date the committee met. COPE examined the same Auditor General’s reports for the same university at a sitting held on Wednesday, August 5, reported by The Morning on August 12 — an account covering digital systems management, disciplinary inquiries, academic bond agreements and international rankings, none of which appear in Monday’s report. Whether Ada Derana is describing a further tranche of that session or a subsequent sitting is not clear from the report, and no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own account of these findings as of early Tuesday.
