Sri Lankan boat manufacturers are seeing an increase in demand for fishing boats following the increasing need of multi-day vessels but such a boat manufacturing venture started in 2016 is still to be completed due to irregularities, official sources said.
The Cabinet of Ministers had decided on 06 July 2016 to manufacture and provide 10 multi-day vessels to the Cey-Nor Foundation with a view to supplying quality fish products to the consumers by minimizing the post-harvest losses of fish.
The manufacturing price of a multi-day vessel had been assessed at Rs.26 million and the Government subsidy was fifty per cent while the fisherman should bear fifty per cent, fisheries ministry report revealed.
The said activity was planned to be carried out before 15 December 2016 and as such, 05 of the multi-day vessels had been commenced to be manufactured by the Cey-Nor Foundation.
The other 05 vessels had been commenced to be manufactured by two private yards registered in the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources under the supervision of Cey-Nor Foundation.
Even though the manufacturing work of 05 multi-day vessels should be completed by the Cey-Nor Foundation before 15 December 2016, manufacturing of one multi-day vessel by the Cey-Nor Foundation and the manufacturing of 3 multi-day vessels by a private company had not been completed as at 31 December 2018,a government audit inspection detected.
A vessel manufactured by the Cey-Nor Foundation and given to a fisherman was destroyed from fire in the first voyage on 22 March 2018.
Even though the Marine Engineer Assistant of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had confirmed on 20 February 2018 that the multi-day vessel had properly manufactured, a formal inquiry on the said damage had not been held in terms of Financial Regulation 103 and 10, audit report revealed
(LI)