Nearly Rs. 30 billion recoverable from university lecturers: CoPE

11-Nov-2026

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The Committee on Public Enterprises (CoPE) has revealed that nearly Rs. 30 billion remains recoverable from university lecturers who have breached their bonds and agreements.

The committee has instructed the relevant authorities responsible for administering the university system to pay special attention to the matter and establish a mechanism to recover the outstanding amounts.

During its investigations, the committee also found that a female lecturer who had resigned to contest the 2024 elections and subsequently rejoined the service had been paid Rs. 3,633,900. The committee directed the authorities to recover this amount from her.

Meanwhile, documents relating to the educational qualifications and promotions of certain university officials have gone missing. In addition, 38 non-academic staff members had avoided using the electronic attendance recording machines installed at universities, while some employees had taken leave in excess of their entitled limits.

Some employees had taken five additional days of leave, while others had exceeded their permitted leave entitlement by between five and 83.5 days. As a result, an additional sum of Rs. 99,181,457 had been paid to these employees, and no action had been taken to recover the money.

The committee also examined amounts recoverable from retired university employees and those who continued to serve. However, documents relating to such payments had also gone missing.

Officials attributed the loss of the documents to natural disasters, including floods that had occurred from time to time, as well as the 2004 tsunami disaster.

However, CoPE Chairman and MP Nishantha Samaraweera and other committee members rejected these explanations and stressed that the officials concerned must submit accurate records and supporting information.