The Ministry of Housing disbursed loans totalling Rs. 300 billion to more than 67,000 recipients between 2015 and 2019, but only Rs. 40 billion has been recovered to date, Deputy Minister of Housing T.B. Sarath told Parliament today.
The loan programme was implemented during the tenure of Sajith Premadasa as Minister of Housing.
Speaking during a parliamentary session, the Deputy Minister alleged that the initiative was riddled with financial mismanagement and irregularities, describing it as “a major act of fraud” and blaming such practices for contributing to the country’s ongoing economic crisis.
He said that while the official loan amount was Rs. 500,000 per beneficiary, the majority of recipients received far less and in some cases as low as Rs. 80,000 or Rs. 120,000.
“This was presented as a development initiative, but what we see now is the misuse of public funds under the guise of housing assistance,” he said.
He also pointed out that 2,400 of the loan recipients were from the Hambantota district alone.
Noting that Sri Lanka did not become bankrupt overnight, he said that years of systemic theft and mismanagement in ministries like this had led the country to bankruptcy.
The Deputy Minister called for a full-scale investigation into the use of public funds by former administrations and demanded legal action against all individuals found responsible for financial misconduct.
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