Internal sources of the National Fertilizer Secretariat stated that certain officials of the Secretariat and the Agriculture Ministry are engaged in an effort to undermine the investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) by misplacing the files required for the investigation of billions of rupees of fertilizer irregularities allegedly committed jointly by them.
According to sources in the office, the officials involved in the fraud have given a stock of urea fertilizer worth Rs. 21 million to a factory in the Horana area in 2019 for agricultural purposes.
Although it was against the law to provide subsidized fertilizers imported in this way for any purpose other than agriculture, the sources stated that the fertilizer stocks were sent to the factories with the blessing of the then Director of the National Fertilizer Secretariat under the
care of two of its Assistant Directors using vehicles of Agriculture the Ministry.
In addition to this, it is believed that millions of government subsidies have also been obtained for those fertilizers that were smuggled out against the law.
The sources said that investigations are going on based on a complaint made by Sumedha Perera, former secretary of the Agriculture Ministry, to the Criminal Investigation Department regarding the misuse of subsidized fertilizers. Internal sources further said that the fact that the officers involved in this large-scale fraud are still in the same positions in the National Fertilizer Secretariat and the Ministry of Agriculture which is a serious obstacle to the investigations.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
, Local, ,