National Audit Office highlights discrepancies over debt figures in treasury, CBSL records

The latest report of the Auditor General's has observed that there are inconsistencies between the records of the central and the finance ministry on the total debt liabilities of the country. According to the report, the discrepancy stands at 700 billion rupees. According to the finance ministry, the government's outstanding debt payments at the end of 2019 stood at 12.18 trillion. However, the Auditor General's report noted that this figure does not include the 700 billion rupees mentioned in central bank records. 318.2 billion rupees of the excluded amount includes loans that were raised by the issuance of treasury bonds, and other foreign loans including the loans obtained for the construction of the Hambantota Port. The Auditor General has pointed out that loans worth 172 billion rupees that were obtained for the construction of the Hambantota Port had not been included in the 2019 report of the finance ministry. Loans worth Rs 82 billion obtained for the second phase of the construction of the Hambantota Port had also been excluded in the report of the finance ministry. The Auditor General's report pointed out that loans worth 33.4 million that had been obtained in 2018 and 2019 had also not been included in the Auditor General's report.