An audit report done on the Horowpothana Elephant Holding centre has found major discrepancies and fraudulent payments.
According to a census conducted at the Horowpothana Elephant Holding Ground in July 2019, the number of elephants in the centre was nine, but an audit report issued by the National Audit Office stated that 30 elephants had been fed.
During the period from August 1 to October 31, 2019, Rs. 6,559,245 has been paid to the contractor for providing food to 21 more elephants. For the supply of 2,800 kgs of Jack fruit leaves and Pumpkin daily to 30 Elephants at the Centre during the period from 1st November 2018 to October 31, 2019 a contract worth Rs. 26,133,700 had been awarded. However, during the physical examination it has been found that a large number of leafy branches had withered due to elephants not consuming them. The audit report also states that there was no adequate monitoring of food supplied externally.
The Horowpothana Wildlife Office did not also have the equipment to weigh the food supplied externally and a private rice mill scale was used for this purpose. The audit also revealed that the payments had been made without verification of the weight of the food items as no supervisory officer was stationed to weigh the food.
Although the agreement regarding the supply of food states that tamarind leaves should be provided, it has been revealed that those leaves are not consumed by elephants, according to the audit report.The audit report also states that five of 12 of the elephants admitted to the centre had died due to malnutrition.
According to the Elephant Census, between 2015 and June 2019, 52 violent elephants were admitted to the detention centre. According to the audit report, only 9 elephants are left and 12 of them have died. The Wildlife Department did not have information on whether the remaining 31 elephants had fled the area or not, the audit report said. The elephants admitted to the detention centre were in poor health and elephants’ health condition had not been monitored, the audit report said.
The audit report states that Rs. 159.48 million has been spent for the construction of a 16 km electric fence and that there was a problem regarding its quality. The audit also revealed that although an environmental impact assessment should be made before the launch of this project, no such assessment had been made.
