EPC rejects fraud claims

By Jamila Najmuddin


The Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) led by Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan has rejected claims of fraud in the council as allegedly claimed in an audit report last week.

A spokesman for Mr. Chandrakanthan, speaking to Daily Mirror online, insisted that such claims were baseless and felt the charges were being raised with a political motive without any evidence.

“Despite reports of fraud or financial irregularities in the Eastern Provincial Council we have not seen any evidence to prove it and both the Council and the Presidential Secretariat have also not come across such claims,” Azad Maulana, a spokesman for Mr. Chandrakanthan told Daily Mirror online.

He further added that the Council has sought a clarification from the Eastern Province Governor’s office over the claims, as reported in the Daily Mirror last week.

It was reported that several financial irregularities in the Eastern Province Chief Minister’s Secretariat have been revealed by the Auditor General in his audit report for 2008. The audit report has been forwarded to the Accounts Committee of the Provincial Council.

Advanced payments of Rs.2 million to conduct a Korean language course to 250 unemployed young men and women and suspending the course after making the payment, hiring of eleven private vehicles for Rs.320, 000 despite there being adequate council vehicles and the payment of insurance premiums amounting to Rs.96,592 to a private insurance company are among the irregularities mentioned in the audit report, sources had said. (Daily Mirror online)