Errant engineer home free with a pension, charge sheet not issued

Charge sheets for a Rs90 million fraud have not been issued yet to an engineer sent on pension under Section 2 (12) of the Pensions Act from the Kandy Municipal Council, even though the inquiry had been held in 2018.

This was revealed by Anura Gonawela, General Secretary of the Organisation for the Protection of Public Property. The original complaint, which had been inquired by the Auditor General, found material that warrants a charge sheet.

The exposure of the fraud was made in 2018 on the laying of water pipes from Kandy to Katugastota, where, the Organisation says, there are water flow issues to this day.

The pipes were imported from China. However, the engineer and another officer had flown to China to inspect the pipes after the pipes had already been laid from Kandy to Katugastota. This superfluous trip to China had not been approved by Central Province Governor Ms Neluka Ekanayake, violating Public Service regulations.

It is alleged that the Commissioner of the Council had overridden the Governor and allowed the officers to go to China for inspection of the pipes even though the pipes had already been laid. It was also alleged that the Council had allowed expenses of Rs 1.5 million on the trip to China for the two officers, which is also a charge under inquiry.

The charge sheets have to be presented by a line office of the Public Service Commission, which has not been done for the last number of years.