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SLBFE still holds on to Rs. 3.2 billion in unpaid Kuwait war compensation
View(s):The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) is still holding on to a balance of more than Rs 3.2 billion from money remitted by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) to pay Sri Lankans who were employed in Kuwait during that country’s invasion by Iraq in 1990, the Auditor General’s Department states.
The amount in US dollars at the prevailing exchange rate is more than US$ 20mn. The payments are yet to be made because the bureau “had not implemented a formal methodology to pay compensations to the relevant workers,” says the 2015 Auditor General’s Report on the SLBFE. As a result, a balance of Rs 3,213,918,952 remains. Additionally, this has falsely been shown in accounts as a capital reserve when it should be termed a long-term liability.
A capital reserve is a fund or account set aside for major long-term investment projects or other anticipated expenses. It is unlikely that the SLBFE has authorisation to use funds remitted by the UNCC as compensation for long-term investment projects or expenses. The UNCC was created in 1991 under a Security Council resolution to process claims and pay compensation for losses and damage suffered as a direct result of Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91.
Around 2.7 million claims with an asserted value of US$ 352.5 billion were filed, the UNCC website says. It concluded processing claims in 2005 and the total compensation awarded was US$ 52.4 billion to about 1.5 million successful claimants.
The SLBFE’s failure to pay out the compensation means that there is still a large number of Sri Lankan affected by the invasion and ensuing war awaiting payment.
The Auditor General’s report also points to an overall weakness by the SLBFE in facilitating compensation for registered workers in relation to various losses. An insurance scheme was launched in June 2012 by SLBFE together with Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency (Pvt) Ltd for migrant workers after registering with the Bureau. The SLBFE paid the agency an annual sum of Rs 594,890,103 as insurance premium from 2013 to March 2015 until the agreement ended.
The dependents of an insured and registered migrant worker are entitled to Rs 400,000 in case of his or her demise. But, by stating that the dependents of 281 migrants who died in 2014 and 2015 had not lodged their claims under the insurance agreement, it had been neglected to pay out compensation totalling Rs 112.4 million. The dependents had simply not been informed of their entitlements.
Worse, the legal division had identified the heirs of 46 deceased migrants. But compensation totalling Rs 18.4 million due to them had not been paid even up to January 19, 2016 (the date of the audit). Further, it had been stated that the files of 42 deceased migrants were incomplete. No action was taken to expedite granting them compensation after settling those issues by both the insurance company and the bureau.