Sri Lanka’s National Audit Office has revealed that health sector projects worth more than Rs. 22 billion implemented over four years were not audited due to legal and procedural limitations that prevented the Auditor General from reviewing the foreign-funded initiatives.
According to the Auditor General’s annual audit report for 2024, the Ministry of Health spent Rs. 22,045.07 million on 22 foreign aid projects between 2021 and 2024 that were not subjected to audit examinations by the National Audit Office.
The audit office said the Auditor General lacked the authority to conduct audit investigations or issue audit reports for each of these projects because he was not specifically named as the project auditor in the agreements governing the foreign aid funding.
“As the Auditor General was not identified as the auditor in the relevant agreements, audit investigations and reports could not be carried out for these projects,” the National Audit Office stated.
The report further noted that a total of Rs. 52,086.35 million had been allocated for the foreign aid projects under various expenditure heads of the Ministry of Health during the period under review.
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