News

News

People’s trust misplaced: Interim report on Public Trustee’s Dept.
Officials of the Public Trustee’s department failed to take proper care of the funds deposited with the department causing grave injustice to the trust placed in the Public Trustee, a committee probing the department operations said.

These findings have been published in an interim report with the final report expected in December. The three member committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge A.M.S. Samaraweera, comprises retired SLAS officer P. Piyasoma and former Deputy Auditor General, K.A.D.S. Nanayakkara. The Committee Secretary is W.E.M. Devanarayana.

The report said some of the officials were even unaware how the funds of various Trusts were to be disbursed. The department holds on trust including cash and real estate valued at millions of rupees .

The Interim report states the Department failed to release the relevant files, documents and the officials in charge of such files which delayed the investigations.

The reports states that Mr. Jayasinghe, the administrative officer, had not granted a request for space in the building to enable the Committee to carry out its work.

It states that a request for a list of items under investigation is yet to be made available. “Details include Vavugala estate in Galle; four shops in Colombo; the Wanigasuriya trust (Colombo); 200 shops in Trincomalee; the Rasul Trust and Timitar in Trincomalee”, the report said.

“A list of court cases pending has not been provided. When Mr. Jayasinghe was asked to issue a copy of regulations relating to the Public Trustee Act he said he would issue one when available. This statement from a responsible officer is amazing.

“Because of the lethargic attitude of the officials the committee is helpless and the necessary investigations are at a standstill”, the report stated.
The Committee noted that though the responsibility of the department was to ensure the Trusts were executed in a manner originally intended and the beneficiaries satisfied, however this appears not to be so.

The department citing an example said the beneficiaries of the K.K.S. Wickremasinghe Trust had to come to the department several times to collect their dues paid out of the interest on the Rs. 125,000 deposited. But the beneficiaries were finding it difficult to pay even their bus fare to call over at the department and on one occasion an official had to pay the money out of his own pocket for the bus fare.

“In this connection when the subject clerk was summoned and asked why this happened, he said there was no money in the bank. This cannot be as the bank where the funds were placed in a fixed deposit has accrued interest”, the report went on to state.

“At the inquiry into the R.L.H. Chandrasekera’s Trust case the concerned party said that former Trustee Mapa was a nice person and that he was doing his job well. But N.S.A.S. Seneviratne who is under interdiction came in for a lot of criticism. The attorney from Colombo had to be paid Rs. 10,000 for each visit to Anuradhapura but he had not presented his brief in a satisfactory manner and therefore the case had to be terminated”, the report said.

The interim report of the committee has noted that even Deputy Public Trustee F.R. Fernandopulle was also not aware of the goings on in the department. The committee noted that the present Deputy Public Trustee Devagiri Bandara was not at all qualified for the post, and that he had been earlier remanded in connection with several criminal offences and released on bail by the Appeal Court.

More details are supposed to be published in the final report.
“During investigations, the committee found that information was not forthcoming and that relevant officers appeared to be ignorant of the subject they were handling and this resulted in the beneficiaries having to lose out. This situation was apparent from so many letters that appear in newspapers from time to time”, the report said.

“Therefore the committee suggests that the Public Trustee’s department is not able to function efficiently by the continued stay at their posts by these officials and the public are not being served either and therefore such officers should be transferred out of the department”, the report said. Going by these circumstances the committee feels that the following need be considered for future guidance.

“If these officers of the Public Trustee’s department come before the committee without any preparation or knowledge of the subject they handle and if their behaviour before the committee is such, it is not too difficult to surmise how they might behave with the general public. Officers who have served for three years need to be transferred out of the dept and others appointed who should be trained in the type of duties they will handle. They should be made aware of the relevant Acts and the guiding regulations and procedures.

“When the chairman and other committee members walked into the department unannounced, they found the administration was very poor. It was revealed that the subject clerks were not getting the necessary instructions from the high ups and the building was in a worse condition with files all over the place. When questioned the reply was that no support was coming from higher-ups regarding procedures and the state of the surroundings was untidy. Therefore a senior officer from the Administrative service has to be appointed to this dept. immediately”, the report said.
A detailed and a final report will be furnished in due course.

Top

Back to News