Outgoing Auditor General, Chulantha Wickramaratne, says probes into many corruption incidents have revealed the involvement of some state officials.
Chulantha Wickramaratne yesterday retired after having completed his tenure, serving as the 41st Auditor General of Sri Lanka for 06 years, since 2019.
Speaking to reporters, the outgoing Auditor General said most often politicians are blamed for corruption-related incidents.
“However, investigations into most cases have found that some state officials are also involved. The signing of cheques and vouchers cannot all be done by politicians alone, but are done by state officials. If we don’t address this soon, we will continue travelling on this same path,” he said.
Chulantha Wickramaratne further said that a suitable system to address this issue is only possible through the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA).
“The new COPE and COPA committees are committed to working towards addressing this issue. The Auditor General has a key role to play here. Not only submitting reports, but further steps must be taken to initiate action and impose punishments, where possible,” he added. (Newswire)