Unused allocations are automatically accrued - Secy

Rasika Somarathna

State officials in Jaffna had pointed out to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that Rs 569 million local government funding allocations given to LG bodies controlled by the Tamil National Alliance in the North were returned to the Treasury as TNA LG members had not made use of these disbursements, President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunge said.

He was commenting on an article in an English newspaper which said the government has allegedly taken back monies allocated for development work to Northern Province local councils controlled by the TNA.

Secretary Weeratunge said officials had pointed out that these monies were automatically accrued to the Treasury only because the budgetary allocations had not been used.

Secretary Weeratunge told the media that it was the normal practice for monies allocated for such development to accrue to the Treasury if they have not been used within the year.

He said the government wants these allocations to be used for development for the benefit of people and questioned why this has not been the case with funds disbursed to the said LG institutions.