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Cash-Strapped Sri Lanka Keeps Schools Shut Because of Fuel Crisis - Report_我的网站

A |     Colombo, Oct 21 (UNI) Paddy stocks worth billions of rupees in storage facilities owned by the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) have vanished during the last decade in Sri Lanka, reports by the Auditor General have revealed.
The Island newspaper on Friday quoted a senior PMB officer as saying that about 20 per cent of total paddy stored in the last decade have disappeared.
The Auditor General has also found that the financial reports of the PMB have been consistently unreliable and that the institution has not taken a physical stock of the paddy held in their storage units.
The Auditor General’s reports state that the weight of the paddy collected from the farmers might drop while in storage due to the loss of moisture in the paddy during the storage period, damage due to insects and other reasons, the daily said.
Even after taking these factors into consideration, there was no way of explaining how about 20 per cent of the total stock vanished, an unnamed senior officer was quoted as saying.
The Auditor General’s reports have also revealed that Ministers sold the PMB paddy to their henchmen below the purchase prices.
The PMB management had not made any attempts to recover the cost over the years.
PMD Chairman Buddhika Iddamalgoda said that he had been appointed only three weeks earlier. There are 21 Auditor General’s reports on the PMD and he would go through all reports, he said.
“We have purchased paddy amounting to 810 million rupees this season. We have 7,070 tonnes and we expect to make Rs 2 billion by selling them. I agree that we need to take a physical stock of what is in our stores,” he said.
UNI MR。    The Sri Lankan government has shut all schools for a week, saying the nation does not have enough fuel to send teachers and children to the classroom, local media reports say.,The country's Education Secretary, Nihal Ranasinghe, instructed the schools to conduct lessons online.,He also said that the schools at the divisional level will be allowed to run classes with fewer students so long as students, teachers and principals are not affected by transportation difficulties, the country's newspaper, The Daily Mirror, reported.,Ranasinghe also announced that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has agreed not to have power cuts between 8am and 1pm to enable online teaching on weekdays.,The department has also announced countrywide power cuts of up to three hours a day from Monday.,Sri Lanka Lifts Qatar Charity Terror Ban as Crisis-Hit Nation Eyes Oil, Gas 30 June, 12:00 GMT,In June the country announced that schools would' shut down for a week thanks to the fuel crisis.,Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera on Sunday said the government has ordered new fuel stocks, and the first shipment carrying 40,000 metric tons of diesel is expected to arrive on Friday, whereas the first shipment carrying gasoline will come on 22 July.,Wijesekera also appealed to the country's two million expatriates to send money home through banks to finance new oil purchases.,The minister also revealed that several other fuel shipments were in the pipeline, but authorities are struggling to find $587Mln to pay for the fuel.,"Sri Lanka owed about $800Mln to seven fuel suppliers," he added. The remittance, which usually stood at $600Mln per month, had declined to $318Mln in June, a 53 percent of decline compared with June 2021.,The decline has been seen since last year when the government ordered the mandatory conversion of foreign currency, forcing people to pay extra money.,Many media reports suggest that since then, many people have resorted to the black market to send their cash rather than through official channel.,Want to know more? Check out our Koo & Telegram accounts!,Koo: https://www.kooapp.com/profile/sputniknews,Sputnik India: https://t.me/sputniknewsindia。

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