Mahapola Fund lost Rs 673M – COPE

It was revealed at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund had not received Rs 673 million earned through the sales of an online lottery of the Mahapola Trust Fund, which was sold through an intermediary.

COPE Chairman, Prof. Charitha Herath, directed Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, J.M.Bhadrani Jayawardena, to inform the Attorney General, and refer the matter to the CID for a formal inquiry, as this could be considered as an incident of large-scale corruption.

In addition, due to insufficient capital gains on securities transactions of companies under the Mahapola Trust Fund, Rs18 million and Rs102 million in losses were incurred in 2015 and 2016. 

It was also revealed that a loss of Rs13 million has been incurred during the repurchases made using investments in National Wealth Corporation in 2017. 

Officials said the Cabinet had approved the liquidation of the National Wealth Corporation and National Wealth Securities Corporation, as it was not necessary for the companies to continue running at a loss. 

However, Prof. Herath said although it would not be a problem to liquidate those institutions after punishing the culprits, it would not be appropriate to liquidate these institutions without proper investigation in the situation of such a large-scale fraud.

COPE also decided to summon the National Wealth Corporation and the National Wealth Securities Corporation as soon as possible, and to stop the liquidation until these irregularities are properly investigated.