The Auditor General’s Department has begun an audit of the Ambuluwawa Biodiversity Complex, covering the way land was allocated to it, how the institution has been administered and maintained, and the financial dealings connected to its operations, NewsFirst reported.
The department said the audit will examine the process through which land was granted to the complex, NewsFirst reported.
Why now
The audit follows years of public argument over the site. Questions have been raised repeatedly about the extent of land granted for the project and the way it has been used.
Public attention sharpened after Cyclone Ditwah, when landslides were reported in the areas surrounding the complex. NewsFirst linked that episode directly to the renewed scrutiny of the land allocation.
Ambuluwawa sits above Gampola in the Kandy district, on terrain that has been unstable through this year’s wet periods. In August, landslides closed the Gampola–Hemmathagama road via Ambuluwawa at two separate points during a day of heavy hill-country rain.
The audit also lands in the middle of a much larger reckoning over building on slopes. The National Building Research Organisation said this week that close to 30,000 houses sit in high-risk landslide zones, 16,746 of them affected by Ditwah.
What has not been reported
NewsFirst did not say how much land is under examination, when it was allocated, to which entity, or under what legal instrument. It gave no timeline for the audit, did not say whether the findings will be tabled in Parliament or referred to COPE or COPA, and did not report whether any official has been asked to respond.
It also did not say whether the audit was triggered by a specific complaint, a parliamentary request, or the Auditor General’s own initiative, nor whether the post-Ditwah landslides are themselves within its scope or simply the context for it.
No other verified newsroom had reported the audit at the time of writing. Ada Derana, Hiru, Daily Mirror and a search across EconomyNext, Daily FT and Colombo Gazette carried nothing on it, making this a NewsFirst exclusive for now.
