The Hon. Major General (Rtd.) G.D. Sooriyabandara

¶ 01 Mr. Deputy Speaker, instead of asking supplementary questions, I will use the time to inform the Hon. Deputy Minister of Defence of a few matters related to this. Sailors have been recruited to the Information Technology Unit under Naval Message No. 5 of 2004. Annex (a) 02.1 of that message states, “Uniforms will not be provided to persons recruited under this scheme for the Information Technology Unit.” I table Naval Message No. 5 dated 07 June 2004.

¶ 02 Accordingly, the 43 officers currently in service have been recruited. Thereafter, during a recruitment in 2017, the Naval Message No. 5 dated 07 June 2004, which should have applied, had been overridden. However, the instructions in the 2017 message were invalidated and, in 2018, the 2004 message was re-implemented. Mr. Deputy Speaker, subsequently, during a recruitment, the Commander of the Navy again issued a message in 2023, applicable only to those recruited under the 2023 message. I table that message as well.

¶ 03 The Internal Audit Management Committee of the Sri Lanka Navy met in 2024. I have the minutes with me, and I table them.

¶ 04 On page 6, regarding the uniform allowance obtained by sailors recruited to the IT Unit, 44 cases were examined on a sample basis. From the date of recruitment, at 28 instances a total of Rs. 1,293,850.34 had been obtained as uniform allowance. It was revealed at the Committee that corrective action is required to address shortcomings in the internal control system. This did not occur due to any fraud by sailors recruited under the special scheme.