At a recent meeting, the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has heard that a ship sailing from Seychelles to Thailand had unloaded 98 containers carrying a large cache of rotten fish in Sri Lanka, claiming that the consignment was intended for organic fertilizer manufacturing.
Additionally, the COPA has uncovered that the Sri Lankan agent of the said ship owns a fish cannery here and that 04 of the containers, which were unloaded from the ship, have gone missing.
It is also reported that the ship had been permitted to unload the containers at the Colombo Port. However, the Import and Export Controller General Mrs. Upulmalee Premathilaka claimed that the relevant permit was issued for fish waste.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the COPA, State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna assured that all government institutions related to the matter would be summoned before the committee on March 05, in order to investigate the incident further.
(Ada Derana)
