The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) Chair, Prof. Tissa Vitarana instructed the officials
of the Department of Cooperative Development to advance the cooperative system and provide essential commodities at reasonable prices throughout the island.
The COPA chair gave these instructions when the Committee on Public Accounts on the 05 th of August in Parliament to examine the Auditor General's report and performance of the Department of Cooperative Development for the years 2017 and 2018.
The Chair further pointed out that the cooperative system was very active in the past and that now it does not exist. He pointed out the importance of increasing the relationship between farmers; cooperatives and consumer cooperatives and taking certain products directly to the people. Prof. Tissa Vitarana also stated that he believes that it is possible to provide essential food items such as dhal, sugar and rice at a reasonable price through a formal system.
Responding to this, the officials of the Department of Cooperative Development said that under the current legal situation, there are difficulties in creating this situation quickly.
Therefore, new laws have been drafted and directed to be examined by the relevant parties and action will be taken to submit these bills to the Committee on Public Accounts as well, the officials said further. Through this, steps have been taken to minimize certain conflicts between the provincial councils and the central government regarding cooperatives and to explain the punishments given to officials for corruption and irregularities, the officials said. State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna addressing the gathering said that steps have already been taken in this regard. He added that the work on the new Bill has become somewhatdifficult as the provisions of the Act relating to cooperatives come from the Constitution itself. However, the state minister said that steps will be taken to resolve it as soon aspossible.
The officials stated that negotiations are already underway to import red lentils from Australia and white sugar from India If the talks are successful, sugar and dhal will be
available at a concessionary price through cooperatives as soon as possible.
The committee members also drew attention to the need to relieve farmers of their debts and pointed out the importance of providing loan relief through rural banks. The officials who were present said that a higher percentage of interest is being paid to the additional parties operating in lending through these rural banks and therefore action should be taken to minimize this situation.
He further questioned the computerization of the Co-operative Rural Banks, which had been instructed at the previous COPA Committee but had not been acted upon. Officials present said that this was stalled due to a problem with the party that won the tender and that steps would be taken to finalize it soon.
Also, the Committee drew attention towards the non-recovery of the loan and interest given to the Building Material Corporation on an agreement in the year 2013. However, it
was stated that no money or interest has been received in this regard and that under the current legal situation, it is not possible to file a case against a state institution and therefore there is a problem.
Hon. State Ministers Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Dayasiri Jayasekara, Hon. Members of Parliament Tissa Attanayake, Kadar Mastan, (Prof.) Ranjith Bandara, Weerasumana
Weerasinghe, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Dr. Upul Galappaththi, and government officials marked their presence at the Committee meeting held.
