18 July 2019 12:01 am
By Yoshitha Perera
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating corruption in the current administration will today commence an inspection tour of farms to which government had distributed 3,030 substandard imported Australian cows.
They will also look at claims that the cows are suffering from Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD), which was not found in Sri Lanka. A complaint was filed with the commission alleging that the government had distributed 3,030 substandard imported Australian cows among 46 investors and dairy farmers who were beneficiaries of a subsidised scheme to introduce high-yielding imported cows, in 2017.
The complaint states that the Ministry of Rural Economy had informed the investors that those pregnant cows would produce 20 litres of milk a day on average and had advised some of the investors, who were already raising cows to get rid of the local cows that they already had. The investors paid Rs. 200,000 per cow and the government contributed
Rs. 265,000. But 50% of the cows had died.
Amal Suriyage of the Lammermoor Estate in Maskeliya, who filed a complaint last week, told media that a team of auditors from Export Finance Australia has arrived in Sri Lanka to cover up the fact that inferior cows were sent here from Australia.
However, Project Director of the Ministry Dr. Sagarika Sumanasekara told Daily Mirror a team of delegates from Australia has arrived to conduct an independent assessment at the farms.