Nearly Rs. 30 billion recoverable from lecturers who breached bonds, COPE told

Nearly Rs. 30 billion may be recoverable from university lecturers who breached agreements and bonds and remained overseas, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) was told.

COPE has called for a formal mechanism to recover money due from academics who failed to return to Sri Lanka after going abroad under bonded arrangements, saying the issue required attention across the entire university system.

The matter was raised when COPE, chaired by MP Dr Nishantha Samaraweera, examined the 2023 and 2024 audit reports and current performance of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka on November 4.

The committee also raised a series of concerns over the university’s financial management, administration and governance.

COPE noted that although the university receives nearly Rs. 3 billion annually from the Government, there is no Treasury representative on its Audit and Management Committee.

It also raised concerns over vacancies in the Internal Audit Unit and a potential conflict of interest arising from a Senior Assistant Internal Auditor involved in financial operations serving as Chief Internal Auditor.

The committee discussed conflicting certificates submitted in relation to academic qualifications and promotions, questions over basic eligibility requirements and the disappearance of personal files belonging to relevant officers.

Complaints from students and parents, as well as findings from investigations conducted by the University Grants Commission, were also considered. COPE ordered a full investigation into the allegations and requested a report within three months.

Audit observations were also raised over study leave and terms of service. An error had reportedly been made in calculating study leave granted to a lecturer still serving a probationary period.

COPE was also told that a female lecturer who resigned to contest an election and later returned to service had been overpaid Rs. 3.63 million. The committee directed officials to recover the money immediately.

Several procurement irregularities were also raised. COPE was told that national procurement guidelines had not been followed when purchasing medical equipment and that disciplinary action recommended by an investigative committee had not been implemented.

The committee also heard that 38 support staff had bypassed the fingerprint attendance system and taken between five and 83.5 days of leave beyond their annual entitlement.

No action had been taken to recover Rs. 99.18 million paid as salaries during those periods, COPE was told.

The committee directed the university to make a transparent biometric attendance system mandatory for all academic and non-academic staff.

COPE also examined outstanding dues from retired and former employees as well as current staff.

Samaraweera criticised explanations that records had disappeared because of the civil war, tsunami and floods, saying accurate and responsible information must be provided to parliamentary committees.

The committee also stressed that university autonomy should not be used to avoid financial and administrative accountability.

The Secretary to the relevant Ministry was instructed to submit amendments to the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978 to Parliament to strengthen the University Grants Commission’s ability to intervene in irregularities involving university governing bodies.