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Political turmoil halts student insurance scheme
View(s):The Rs. 2,800 million worth ‘Suraksha’ insurance scheme launched last year to provide medical cover for Government school students has become the latest casualty of the ongoing political turmoil. The Education Ministry launched the scheme in 2017 and offered insurance cover valid from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. However as 2018 draws to an end, students have not received their insurance cards for the next year.
MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who was appointed Education Minister in the new adminsitration, admitted that the insurance scheme had fallen into abeyance.
He said that, to continue the project, a cabinet paper calling for an allocation of only Rs 1 billion was being prepared, but they could not proceed with it after the Court of Appeal issued an interim order on Monday, preventing the prime minister and ministers from functioning.
Mr. Rajapakshe said the scheme had caused a major financial strain on the ministry because, in terms of the Audit Commission, the estimated cost of the scheme would not exceed Rs 600 million, but the ministry had paid Rs. 2.7 billion to Sri Lanka Insurance for the functioning of the scheme.
However, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, the Education Minister under whom the project was launched, said the scheme would not have been hampered if the previous Cabinet had not been dissolved. This was because, the then government had made arrangements to call for new tenders to award the contract.
He said that his government had even extended the scheme until November 1, following appeals. Meanwhile, Ceylon Teachers’ Association Chairman Joseph Stalin charged that the implementation of the scheme for next year was delayed due to a tender scandal. He said the tender should have been awarded to Allianz Insurance which won the bid, but the ministry delayed the issue as it favoured Sri Lanka Insurance, the winner of last year’s tender.
A Sri Lanka Insurance official said the Government had not issued any instruction to continue the project from December onwards.
He said the company accepted insurance claims up to November 30.