Management inefficiency has led to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) failing to collect as much as Rs.666 million in terms of contributions and surcharges from employers in 2009, the Auditor General has revealed in his latest report to parliament. But the report released last week does not indicate whether these monies were later recovered or are still to be recovered.

The Auditor General said the Kandy North District Labour Office had not recovered Rs.11 million due from four employers as arrears and surcharges before the firm in question was liquidated during the year under review. In another instance, though legal action had been taken to recover Rs.14 million from eight employers, the Fund had been unable to collect the monies during the year.

Similar incidents were reported from the Matale District Labour Office, the Colombo Central Labour Office, the Colombo West District Labour Office and the Colombo East District Office.

The Auditor General had identified losses running into millions of rupees during the year under review due to mismanagement, inefficiency and contentious transactions. In an instance of transactions of contentious nature, an offset printing machine valued at Rs.9 million and its accessories worth Rs.12 million had remained idle even till May last year.

The machine had been brought in 2008 for the printing of specimen forms of the EPF. Despite the availability of this printing machine, the printing of such forms had been given to a private firm, incurring a loss of Rs.6 million during the year.

The Auditor General report said EPF needs special attention in areas such as accounting, internal audit, bank accounts, dishonoured cheques, recovery of surcharges and replies to audit queries. However, in the overall context, the operations of the Fund had resulted in an after tax surplus of Rs.101 billion, an increase of Rs.27 billion when compared with the previous year. (Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera)