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By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent
Committee on Public Accounts (CoPA) tabled the second report of the third session of the eighth Parliament containing information on 20 institutions examined during 23 February – 12 October 2018 yesterday.
The report, which contains 21 general observations and 105 recommendations has also investigated Public Debt Management, Performance Report on the Intervention of Government Institutions regarding Importation of Quality Foods, and Inquiry into Performance Report on the Intervention of Relevant Government Institutions regarding Obtaining the Contribution of New Inventors to the National Economy for the first time.
According to the report, the Attorney General has raised serious concerns about the importation of food to the country highlighting the questionable import of milk powder from New Zealand and released to the market without conducting any laboratory tests for melamine and other contaminations. The Report also raised issues on the importation of grapes, oranges, and apples released to market without conducting tests for banned pesticides.
The CoPA report questions the release of milk powder relying only on the certificate of conformity issued by the country of origin and without carrying out lab tests in Sri Lanka before releasing to the market for the use of consumers.
The Report said that under the food (milk and milk powder) regulations of the year 2010 that no person can import, manufacture, transport, distribute, sell, offer or keep for sale any milk or milk products in Sri Lanka containing melamine in levels exceeding 1.0mg/kg (part per million).
Citing questionable decisions taken at the meeting of the Food Advisory Committee, the CoPA report observed instances of releasing such stocks after an importer informing that it is not mandatory to conduct a melamine test on the relevant stock of powdered milk if the New Zealand Food Safety Authority declares the stock is free of melamine.
“Although the level of dairy fat in full cream milk powder should not be less than 26%, it has been reported that the fat percentage of stocks of powdered milk had declined from a range of 0.4% to 1.4% on four occasions in the period from 2012 to 2013,” the report stated.
Finding substances of banned pesticide Chlorpyrifos in imported fruits is also stated in the report. Sighting an order issued in March 2017, CoPA held in its report that is mandatory to conduct tests imported fruits in the market, which contained sediment components of pesticides.
The CoPA has also taken up an issue of releasing to market some of a rejected stock of imported canned fish.
