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| Sunday, 1 August 2004 |
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Taruna Aruna : Rs. 289m amiss by Gamini Warushamana A sum of nearly Rs. 289 million has gone missing from the Taruna Aruna program. According to the accounts of Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour, Rs. 490,430,380.00 has been allocated to the Taruna Aruna program. But the accounts of the Taruna Aruna show only Rs. 201,438,060.00 Skills Development, Vocational and Technical Education Minister Piyasena Gamage has ordered an inquiry to probe where this money has gone. The institution was incorporated as a private company in 1997 and its main objective was to train unemployed graduates in private sector ventures to provide employment in the private sector. From 1997 to 2003, 9473 graduates have been trained under this program. But the institution does not have any information whether permanent employment for these graduates have been provided or not. Although Taruna Aruna has not achieved its objectives it has been a cash cow to the government. To train 9473 graduates it has spent Rs 227,535,998.00. A US$.11.1 million loan has been obtained from the World Bank and Rs. 89,000.00 has been allocated per trainee graduate. Under the program 8 Chambers of Commerce have been paid Rs. 90,000.00 each monthly and Chamber of Commerce in Jaffna has been paid Rs. 50,000.00 monthly to train the graduates in "Rakiya Piyasa" (Employment Centres). In the beginning the Taruna Aruna office was located in a government building. But today it is in a rented private premises at 24, Rosmead Place, Colombo. The monthly rental is Rs. 70,000.00. It was started with 11 employees and today there are 29, five of them are executive officers. The CEO gets Rs. 70,000.00 salary, a vehicle rented at 40,000.00 per month and 10,000.00 petrol allowance per month. The Manager gets Rs. 70,000.00 salary, vehicle rented at Rs. 35,000.00 and Rs. 7,500.00 petrol allowance. |
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