The World Bank (WB) & the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to provide $30 Million to import medicines that are short in supply in Sri Lanka, officials said.

The Ministry of Health said that the letter of credit has been sent to import the medicines in short.According to the Ministry of Health 42 types of medicines are in short in the country.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka has requested aid from the World Health Organization (WHO) & the WHO has responded positively, said the Ministry of Health.The Ministry of Health said accordingly, that the shortage of medicines will be rectified soon.

Meanwhile, Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena stated that due to the shortage of anesthetics drugs, only essential surgeries are being performed in Government Hospitals.He noted that only cancer and accident-related surgeries are performed

The World Bank (WB) expressed its deep concerns on the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, especially its impact on the livelihoods of the people.

WB South Asia Vice President Hartwig Schafer took to Twitter earlier this week to share the observations of the agency.

“We, at the World Bank, are deeply concerned about the impacts of the crisis on the poor and vulnerable and stand ready to provide emergency support for essential medicines and health-related supplies, nutrition and education,” tweeted Schafer.

While expressing concerns on the ongoing economic turmoil in the country, he said the agency had a “good” meeting with Finance Minister Ali Sabry and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe in Washington DC.

Top officials of the Finance Ministry and Central Bank are currently in Washington DC for discussions with the International Monetary Fund.

The WB Vice President discussed with the Sri Lankan delegations on the actions that could be taken to address the economic crisis, support stabilisation, recovery and protect the vulnerable people.

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) revealed that Building Materials Corporation (BMC) has not prepared any financial statements since 2016

This was  brought to the notice of the COPE meeting chaired by. Prof. Charitha Herath MP to discuss the Auditor General’s Report for the Fiscal Year 2015 and 2016 of the Building Materials Corporation and its current performance.

Officials who were present at the meeting stated that the data for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 had been deleted due to a computer software problem. As a result, they said, there was no information on financial statements.

Accordingly, the COPE Chairman stressed that this was not an excuse and the data should be stored as a backup. He also said that although the data was deleted due to a technical error, there was a reasonable suspicion that there was a problem. Therefore, the Committee recommended that an investigation be filed with the CID as soon as possible.

The COPE Chairman also pointed out that due to the lack of these financial reports, certain financial matters that have taken place since 2016 could not be properly discussed in the COPE.

Discussions were also held regarding the spending of a loan of Rs. 500 million obtained from the Bank of Ceylon in the year 2018. It was revealed that most of this loan has been spent on employee salaries. It was also revealed that the loan had been used to settle a loan previously obtained from the Bank of Ceylon.

 Also, these loan repayments should be resumed from the year 2023. However, it was revealed that the General Manager of the Building Materials Corporation and other officials were unaware that the payment should start from 2023.

In particular, it was mentioned that the Corporation has only the post of General Manager as a permanent post. 

It was also stated that other posts have been established on contract basis. Therefore, the Finance Director of the Corporation has already announced her resignation. Thus, it was mentioned here that she is still in service only to attend this COPE meeting.

Therefore, even though she left the job, as she was more aware of the financial problems of the corporation, the COPE Chairman recommended that she be contacted as an external party and that these financial statements be formalized with her assistance.

It was also revealed that the Chairman of the Building Materials Corporation had announced his resignation on April 18. However, his resignation is not yet legal as the approval of the Board of Directors and the Ministry has not yet been received and therefore it is recommended that he be summoned to the COPE on April 21.

It was also revealed that due to a renovation done on a building in 2017, the files related to financial statements were lost.

Accordingly, the COPE Chairman finally recommended that the financial statements and business plan for the years 2017,2018,2019 be prepared within three months.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor G.L. Peiris met with the Ambassador of China to Colombo, Qi Zhenhong, at the Foreign Ministry on Thursday (21).

While welcoming the Ambassador, Minister Peiris appreciated China’s continued assistance to Sri Lanka which had begun even before establishing formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

He also recalled the Chinese monuments erected in Sri Lanka with the funding of the Chinese Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The Foreign Minister also apprised the Ambassador of the current situation in the country and the shortage of energy which has adversely affected the economy of Sri Lanka.

He briefed the Ambassador on the measures which are being put in place by the Government to immediately overcome the prevailing situation, including the ongoing discussion with the IMF for financial assistance as well as reformulating Sri Lanka’s debt and in that context Minister Peiris requested further assistance from China, particularly in the field of bridging finance during a difficult time.

The Ambassador of China stated that the Embassy of China in Colombo and Beijing were closely monitoring the evolving situation in Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Qi assured that the Chinese Government would continue extending assistance to Sri Lanka in every possible way including direct Chinese Government support, regional Government support and support through Red Cross China.

The China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) has pledged an urgent emergency humanitarian aid of RMB 200 million to Sri Lanka, including 5000 tonnes of rice (with the previously announced 2000 tonnes), pharmaceuticals, production materials and other essentials.

Furthermore, the Yunnan Province has announced a donation of RMB 1.5 million worth of food packages to Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Minister extended Sri Lanka’s profound gratitude to the Government of China for the unwavering and consistent support, the release said.

The ministry said the discussions also focused on people to people exchanges, support at the multilateral fora, poverty alleviation, among others.

Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage, senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officials of the Chinese Embassy were present during the meeting.