Bribery

Govt officials in EP misusing State funds?

JF Rifdhi AliOctober 17, 20221 Mins read958 Views

A group of senior officials from the Eastern Province went to Chennai using State funds, to receive a
fake award, which is not recognised, reliable sources told Ceylon Today yesterday (16).

Three in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) and Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service
(SLEAS), in the ranks of Secretary and Director from Education and Health sectors of the Eastern
Province were in this delegation.

“Eastern Province Governor Anuradha Yahampath had given permission for these senior officers to
travel to Chennai from 13 to 18 October on official leave and allocated around USD 800 for them as
an allowance,” a source from the Eastern Province Governor’s Office said.

In addition, these four high-ranking officers used government vehicles belonging to the Eastern
Provincial Council to travel from Trincomalee to the airport, the source added.

All four of them received ‘Lifetime Achievement Awards’ at the ‘Business Global International Awards
Ceremony’ in Chennai on Saturday (15). This award, conferred by an unknown business organisation,
has raised suspicions.

Our investigation found that this organisation isn’t recognised in the island and is continually selling
fake awards for money.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently ordered government officials to reduce unnecessary
expenditure due to the economic crisis. During these difficult times, public money has been wasted by
some government officials for their personal gain.

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Written by

JF Rifdhi Ali

Rifthi Ali is an award winning journalist with 15 years of experience in print, digital and new media. He is the chief editor of vidyal.lk which is one of the leading Tamil news website in Sri Lanka, since 2014. Also, he writes for Ceylon Today, Vidivelli and Thamilan newspapers. Rifthi Ali is interested in electoral reforms, Right to Information (RTI) reporting, fact checking, environmental reporting and investigative journalism. He won the Prof. K. Kalasapathy Award for Reporting under Special Circumstances – 2020 in Journalism Awards for Excellence which was conducted by Sri Lanka Press Institute and Editors Guild of Sri Lanka. Also, Rifthi Ali has been recognized for his reporting by National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) under the initiative of "Revolution for freedom - A country free of alcohol". He completed his Diploma in Journalism at Sri Lanka College of Journalism. Also, he graduated from Gaylord College for Journalism and Mass Communication in University of Oklahoma, United States and Queensland University of Technology in Australia on media related programmes. He was a participant of the Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) for Scholars conducted by the U.S. Department of State. Rifthi Ali trained more than 500 youths and journalists on media ethics, media literacy, fact checking, awareness on RTI and investigative journalism