Government pharmacists are vehemently protesting against an attempt buy Rs 1 billion worth data system for Health Ministry’s medicine purchase supply and distribution for Hospitals Island wide.

They were seeking a probe on certain Ministry officials and trade unions behind alleged move misleading Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE).

The State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) made headlines recently at the Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) hearing in the Sri Lankan Parliament.

Specifically, when asked about their operations, they claimed that they needed seven billion rupees for software to run their whole enterprise.

This links into some recent drama. The Medical Supplies Division (MSD), which works hand-in-hand with SPC, has existing software although Rs. 644 million spent over seven years (2008 – 2015), and not functional. Auditor General’s report revealed.

SPC clearly has massive inventory management problems: between 2011 and 2020, Rs. 6259 million worth of drugs faced a quality failure due to improper storage of drugs — by the SPC, it added.

Even under these allegations the Health Ministry is to purchase a new data system for the supply and distribution of medicines at a cost of Rs. 1 billion instead of providing solutions to the shortage of pharmaceutical drugs and medical supplies in the country.

The Society of Government Pharmacists (SGP) requested the Minister of Health, the Secretary to the Health Ministry, and the Auditor General to conduct an investigation into the latest allegation. .

A leading member of the society said that certain officials of the Health Ministry and TUs are attempting to propagate that the purchase of drugs and medical supplies has been slowed down due to the data system that is currently in place to manage the purchase and distribution of drugs.

He said that many activities, such as ordering drugs from the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) by hospitals and medical institutions, the distribution of drugs from the MSD to hospitals and then from hospitals to their inpatient and outpatient departments, are being handled by the present system

It also included exchanging drugs and other medical supplies between hospitals, and estimating the required drugs and medical supplies and submitting the relevant information to the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) in addition to handling of about 2,500 Government pharmacists country wide.

“Some officials from the Health Ministry informed the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that this data system does not function properly. They provided misleading information to the COPE.

He added that Health Ministry officials are attempting to purchase another data system without transparent discussions conducted with the relevant parties, including the SGP.

He claimed that if the Health Ministry is to stop using the existing data system, the country will have to face a serious crisis with regard to drugs and medical supplies in 2023. “.

Meanwhile, the College of Medical Laboratory Science claimed at the time that in the context of the global health sector being digitiZed, the Health Ministry had failed to recruit any officers with expertise in information technology (IT) and that the same has resulted in the failure of many IT-related projects carried out by the Health Ministry at huge costs.

He said that a large sum of money is being wasted due to the appointment of Medical Officers (MOs) as IT officers instead of IT experts, which, he claimed, not only prevents the MOs from carrying out their primary duty of treating patients, but also causes huge financial losses when the IT projects eventually fail.

In the wake of government’s extension of US$100 million credit line for rooftop solar countrywide, the sustainable energy sector warned of bankruptcy due to the non-payment of Rs. 35 billion in dues by the Ceylon Electricity Board.

Employees in the sector yesterday staged yet another protest in Colombo demanding immediate settlement of dues.

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said a $ 100 million credit line extended by the Indian Government for rooftop solar will be utilized to equip several State-owned buildings for power generation.

He made these remarks following a progress review meeting held on Saturday. The meeting was attended by officials from the Indian High Commission State Minister D.V. Chanaka, the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Sri Lanka.

Schools, universities, education institutes, hospitals, districts, Divisional Secretariats, Government buildings and religious institutes will be equipped with rooftop solar, utilizing the Indian credit line, the Minister said via Twitter on Saturday.

The sector accounts for 13% of the country’s energy supply. However protesters told the media it was said that even though there was an agreement to settle the dues it has only remained on paper.

As the power is supplied to the grid at far below the selling price and for which the monies have been collected by the CEB from its customers giving a very high profit. Despite this fact of having collected the money for the power supplied the CEB still does not pay the dues to the sustainable energy suppliers.

They warned that further delay in payment would lead to the collapse of sustainable energy industry leading to job losses and investments jeopardizing cost-efficient future power supply.

Holding the maiden press conference of the newly formed Federation of Renewable Energy Developers (FRED), the association’s President Thusitha Peiris yesterday revealed that the grid-connected private sector renewable energy developers are struggling to continue operations of their power plants due to severe cash-flow shortages with the CEB failing to settle Rs.35.1 billion worth of invoices owed to them over past 10 months.

With a 1, 350MW installed capacity, private sector renewable energy players currently contribute to around 14 percent of the country’s power generation.

The payments to private sector-owned renewable power sector only amounts to 5 percent of CEB’s overall power generation cost, whereas 74 percent of the cost is incurred to import diesel and heavy fuels.

Past President of Small Hydro Power Developers Association Prabath Wickramasinghe noted that renewable energy sector’s annual contribution has come down by 60GWH, which has led to Rs.5.35 billion net loss for CEB as CEB is forced to rely more on expensive imported power generation sources such as diesel to meet the shortfall.

As a result of severe cash flow issues, renewable energy developers are now struggling to service around Rs.60 billion project loans with the country’s banking sector with most of the loans classified as non-performing.

As a result, banking and other financial entitles now tend to recognize investments in renewable energy sector as high-risk, which could substantially slow down the country’s renewable energy activities in years to come.

It has been decided to submit the budget document for the year 2023 to the Parliament on 14 November 2022.

This decision has been taken by the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

1. TNA MP M A Sumanthiran refutes allegations that some of the party’s MPs hold dual citizenship: asserts that the allegations are “absolute nonsense”.
2. Chancellor of University of Ruhuna, Ven. Dr. Akkuretiye Nanda Thera says the Buddhist Nikayas must intervene to protect the rights of novice monks (Samanera) in temples: also says those below 12 years should not be ordained.
3. SJB MP Dr Harsha de
   Silva says Sri Lanka will not get IMF Board approval for a programme by end-2022 if the Government does not finalise agreements with creditors in the next 2 to 3 weeks: it’s already 7-1/2 months since seeking IMF assistance and not a single dollar has been received from IMF or any bilateral funding source, so far.
4. Only Rs.69 bn Treasury bills sold after offering Rs.80 bn: bulk raised from 3-month T-bills, aggravating the future “bunching” of settlements: yields – 3-month @ 33.05%, 6-month @ 32.53%: analysts say huge debt crisis looming.
5. College of Medical Laboratory Science states there is a shortage of 120 essential drugs: also says more than 40 tests done at the Medical Research Institute are not done as a result: Health Ministry insists the shortages are not severe.
6. CB Governor Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe says those earning above Rs.100,000 are less affected by the tax hike, than those under the poverty-line who are more affected by inflation: adds “there’s an urgent need for the Government to collect more revenue somehow”.
7. Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardene says political will and readiness to take unpopular decisions are essential to find proper solutions to the current economic crisis: significant crises emerge in several industries as a result of over Rs.200 bn government’s unpaid bills.
8. President’s Counsel Sampath Mendis appearing for former CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal in a private plaint filed by NGO activist Keerthi Tennekoon in the Colombo Magistrate’s Court says the complainant has misled Court by failing to reveal that the same cause of action complained by him against Cabraal had been previously dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
9. Secretary, Ministry of Public Security S. Hettiarachchi says the request to the UK Police would be “review the reports pertaining to the investigations already conducted in relation to the Easter Sunday terror attacks”, and not for a fresh investigation.
10. An official of Sri Lanka Squash says Sri Lanka will not field a team at the next week’s Asian Squash Championship as the Ministry of Sports does not have funds.

It is reported that the generation activities of Kelanitissa power plant have been stopped by now.

AGU Nishantha, Chairman of the Association of Technical Engineers and Superintendents of Ceylon Electricity Board, said that due to damage to the bearing system of the power plant, the generation activities have been stopped.

However, Dhammika Wimalaratne, a member of the Executive Board of the Electricity Board’s Engineer’s Association, had stated to the media that due to the lack of naphtha fuel required for the Kelanitissa power plant, its generation activities have been temporarily stopped.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued an extraordinary gazette announcement revising the scopes and functions of several ministries.

Accordingly, the National Building Research Organization under the Ministry of Defense and the Company Register Department under the Ministry of Finance have been removed from those ministries.

Also, the Ceylon Phosphate Company under the Ministry of Agriculture and the Center of Excellence for Robotics under the Ministry of Industry have also been removed from those ministries.

The company register department and Ceylon Phosphate Company which were thus removed have been placed under the Ministry of Industry through the new gazette notification.

Also, the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and the Center of Excellence for Robotics have been gazetted under the Ministry of Technology.

The full gazette notification can be accessed here…

Recently (21), the Committee on Government Accounts (COPA) advised the Ministry of Foreign Employment and the Bureau of Foreign Employment to prepare a plan with a more efficient program to send more trained workers to foreign jobs in good coordination with vocational training institutions.

These instructions were given when the Committee on Public Accounts met recently under the chairmanship of Kabir Hashim to examine the performance audit report on the evaluation of the role to be played for the quality development of the foreign employment sector.

Accordingly, the committee chairman said that those institutions will be called before the COPA committee again in the future.

The chairman of the committee pointed out that although there is a great demand for skilled workers for foreign jobs, it is a serious problem that it is not possible to send skilled workers who meet the demand from the country and in 2021 this figure has reached as low as 33%.

The committee pointed out that this is due to the lack of proper coordination between the relevant responsible institutions.

Thus, the committee emphasized the need for the Ministry of Foreign Employment, the Foreign Employment Bureau to implement an efficient program with a new plan to train workers in the relevant fields with constant attention to the new job markets in the world, together with the vocational training institutes of the country.

The committee also drew attention to the fact that a national migrant labor policy had been prepared but was not implemented based on this. Thus, the committee emphasized that these policies should be updated periodically. Although the officials said that the work has been started, it appears that there is a delay and the committee pointed out the need to operate with a specific plan and purpose as the basic arrangement related to sending foreign workers is in these policies.

According to an agreement between the United States of America and the Sri Lankan government in 2016, although there is space for qualified nurses in the country, it was revealed that out of a group of 425 nurses who had applied, three nurses passed the relevant language proficiency test.

According to the agreements between the governments of countries like Japan, Korea and Israel, although there is scope for sending trained workers, it was revealed that the number of trained workers going abroad from this country is decreasing due to the decrease in the number of people with language proficiency and professional skills in the respective countries. Here, the committee pointed out at length that these institutions including the Foreign Employment Bureau should operate to open job opportunities through the relevant ambassadorial relations and to train workers with professional skills.

At a time when the country is in an economic crisis, the committee pointed out at length the need to identify and promote these foreign employment sectors as a source of foreign exchange earnings. For that, the committee emphasized the need for the research department within the Foreign Employment Bureau to operate more efficiently.

State Ministers Dr. Suren Raghavan, Mohan Priyadarshan Silva, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Diana Gamage Members of Parliament Tissa Attanayake, Niroshan Perera, Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle, J.C. Alawathwala, Isuru Dodangoda, Prof. Charita Herath, Wasantha Yapa Bandara and Weerasumana Weerasinghe were present on this occasion. Also, a group of government officials including Ananda Wimalaweera, Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Foreign Employment, Mahendra Kumarasinghe, Chairman of the Foreign Employment Bureau, were also present on this occasion.