Clarification on Annual Report of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

Monday, 1 February 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In an article published in the newspaper ‘Daily FT’ on 25 January, W.A Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, has stated that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has not published its Annual Reports since 2012. In this regard, the EPF wishes to clarify the following with respect to the publication of its Annual Report.

1. In terms of Section 5(1) (h) and (I) of the EPF Act No. 15 of 1958, the Monetary Board is required to maintain a general account in respect of the Fund and prepare the following financial statements annually;

Statement of Income and Expenditure
Statement of Assets and Liabilities
Statement of Receipts and Payments, and
Statement of Investments, showing the face value, purchase price and market value of each type of investment

2. Accordingly, the EPF wishes to state that the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2013, has been audited by the Auditor General and the Annual Report containing audited financial statements along with the accompanying disclosures have been submitted to the Hon. Minister of Labour and Labour Relations as provided for in Section 6(4) of the EPF Act to be tabled before the Parliament. Financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014 has been submitted to the Auditor General within the prescribed timeframe and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015 is being currently finalised and will be submitted to the Auditor General in due course.

3. In this background, the EPF wishes to state that all necessary steps have been taken to submit the Annual Report of the EPF for the year 2013 to the Parliament and the Annual Report of 2014 will be submitted in due course upon the completion of the audit by the Auditor General.

As such, the Central Bank categorically states that there is no delay in the submission of Annual Reports for audit by the EPF. However, until such reports are submitted to the Parliament and follow the due process, the Central Bank is unable to publish them in its website or in any other medium as it is the manner specified in the EPF Act. However, actions have already been taken to publish such annual reports upon their submission to the Parliament.