CEB looking to recover Rs.3bn of missing EPF funds

Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said yesterday that they were looking for the possibility of filing a civil case over the incident in which Rs. 3 billion from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) belonging to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) was misplaced.

The Minister earlier made a complaint to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) as well over the alleged misappropriation of EPF funds belonging to the State institution.

Speaking at a news conference, Minister Siyambalapitiya said they had consulted the Attorney General (AG) and were awaiting his instructions in order to file a civil case to recover the missing funds.

“The AG had asked the ministry to provide more documents in order to proceed with the case. We have already launched an internal investigation while the Ministry of Labour has also launched their own investigation in this regard,” he said.

Commenting on the latest decision to put a stop to Sampur Coal Power Plant Project, he said the decision was only limited to the cancellation of a ‘Coal’ Power Plant in Sampur and that a panel was still considering the possibility of creating a power plant using another power source. (Lahiru Pothmulla)