Sri Lanka’s provision of inaccurate data comes under IMF scrutiny

Colombo, July 4 (Daily Mirror) - The government's provision of inaccurate data to the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) has come under review by its Executive Board.

The Executive Board reviewed a report from the Managing Director on the inadvertent provision of inaccurate data by Sri Lanka on the ceiling of the central government’s stock of expenditure arrears, according to the IMF.

The under-reporting of the arrears stock identified through a detailedanalysis of budget line appropriations gave rise to noncomplying urchases and a breach ofSri Lanka’s obligations under Article VIII, Section 5. The authorities have worked openly andclosely with IMF staff to provide corrected data and have undertaken several corrective1 SDR figures are converted at the market rate of U.S. dollar per SDR, it said.

“The inaccuracies in information provided to the IMF were inadvertent and arose because ofweaknesses in the timely reporting of arrears by line ministries to the Ministry of Finance, aswell as a misunderstanding by the authorities of the definition of “arrears” under the TechnicalMemorandum of Understanding.“The Executive Board positively considered the authorities’ corrective actions, the fact thatarrears repayments will be accommodated within the existing fiscal envelope, and theauthorities’ commitment to improving public financial management procedures in line with thenew PFM law, to reduce the risk of accruing arrears or inaccurate reporting of informationgoing forward. In view of the above, the Executive Board agreed to grant waivers for thenonobservances of the quantitative performance criterion that gave rise to the noncomplyingpurchases and decided not to require further action in connection with the breach ofobligations under Article VIII, Section 5, Kenji Okamura, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said in a statement.