Jan 17, Colombo: The National Audit Office has uncovered information regarding an incident where the Ministry of Mahaweli Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development has paid over Rs. 1750 million in advance to a contractor for the importation of 15,000 dairy cattle but not a single dairy cow was imported and handed over.

It is said that this amount was paid to the relevant contractor in the year 2018 with a loan obtained from a foreign bank.

Therefore, in addition to that amount, the government had to bear the interest on this loan as well as the loss due to the devaluation of the rupee, according to an audit report.

Despite the failure of the project to import 5000 dairy cows which is said to have been implemented by the Ministry under the first phase, this has been done arbitrarily to import the remaining dairy cows without any approval from the parliament, the Audit report said.

The audit report further states that the relevant authorities had allowed other parties to misuse government funds in this manner and that the Attorney General could not cancel the contract agreement as the advance money had been paid to the contractor.

Government sources have said that no action has been taken against the parties responsible for the incident, according to a report in Lankadeepa.