Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has raised serious concerns over financial irregularities and long-outstanding loan recoveries at the Department of Cooperative Development, flagging losses of over Rs. 167 million and ordering fresh action on stalled reforms.
The Department was summoned before COPA to review National Audit Office triennial audit reports covering 2021-2023, the 2024 Auditor General’s report and current performance. The session was chaired by MP Chandana Suriyarachchi in the absence of COPA Chairman Kabir Hashim.
The Rs. 167 million loss is linked to a loan issued in 2013 from surplus funds of the Cooperative Development Department to the Building Materials Corporation. Audit officials told the Committee the funds had been released outside existing cooperative regulations and that loan repayments stopped after 2015 when the corporation began incurring losses. COPA decided to formally report the matter to Parliament for further action.
The Committee also heard that over Rs. 31 million remains unrecovered from 28 Cooperative Societies that had drawn loans from the Cooperative Development Fund, with repayment delays ranging from 12 to 59 years. Officials said direct recovery action had become difficult because 22 of the 28 societies are registered under provincial cooperative authorities, limiting the department’s legal reach. COPA instructed officials to expedite drafting of a new Cooperative Act with stronger recovery provisions.
COPA also questioned the implementation of the Government’s Rs. 50 million poultry initiative launched in 2024 to distribute one-day-old chicks. Although planned for nationwide rollout, the programme had reached only seven Divisional Secretariat areas in Gampaha. Officials were directed to submit a comprehensive report explaining the limited rollout.
The session adds another accountability item to the parliamentary track that already includes the Treasury cyber heist probes and the Coal Commission inquiry.
