EPF Scam : Hidden details revealed; more to be unravelled soon

Colombo (News 1st): Countless attempts had been made to use the largest single fund that holds the money of hard-working Sri Lankans, the Employees Provident Fund, to fulfil the selfish needs of corrupt politicians. Starting today News 1st is ready to expose the details of these instances where the Employees Provident Fund suffered massive losses. Details of instances where the fund was misused before and after the infamous Central Bank Bond scam are included in these revelations. This is the first edition. The Employees Provident Fund consists of money contributed by employees of both the private and the public sector of the country. As at December 31st 2017 the number of active members in EPF stood at 2.63 million. The net worth of the fund at the time was Rs. 2,066,299 million. Instances, where the fund was directly or indirectly influenced, was brought to the limelight in the past. A special audit report compiled on the time frame between February 27 2015 when it was decided to move away from the direct placement issuance of bonds and May 2016, the day it refrained from trading in the secondary market, has been made public. The purchase of bonds by the EPF in the primary market had dropped from 95% in 2008 to 66% in 2016. Parallelly the purchases of bonds in the secondary market by the EPF had increased from 5% to 34%. The fact that the Central Bank had continuously declined the bids at the bond auctions made by the EPF was also highlighted in the report. The likelihood of the Central Bank accepting a bid by the EPF had dropped from 94% in 2013 to 57% in 2016. In a backdrop where the people are given false hope by the political powers that be, the fate of the true owners of the Employees Provident Fund is an unfortunate one. More details of this and other scams perpetrated by abusing the Employees Provident Fund will be revealed tomorrow (April 21).