Salaries Drying Up For ‘Cement’ Staff

By Indika Sri Aravinda

Rupees 10 million has been paid as salaries and allowances by the Ceylon Cement Corporation and the Ceylon Cement Company despite the  two entities  not earning a single cent as revenue during the last two months.
Rs. 6 million has been paid to 65 employees of the Cement Corporation and Rs. 4 million to the Cement Company’s 22 staff although not a single bag of cement has arrived in their stores for distribution, said a senior official.
However, 18,000 bags of date expired cement are lying in the Cement Corporation.
There is also a loan taken from the Bank of Ceylon which had not been repaid. In addition, there is a directive from the Consumer Protection Authority against selling the date expired cement. All these factors have resulted in the two institutions facing a severe financial crisis.
The last salary was paid with the moneys left in the accounts. However, the two institutions have not imported a single bag of cement in the last three months and as such there would be a crisis in paying the salaries in the coming months, officials say.
The Deputy Minister of Enterprise Development, Sarath Kumara Guneratne said he just returned from the Madhu church in Mannar and had to travel to Ampara for election campaigning.
“I don’t have the time to look into this right now. When I get back to Colombo next week I will look into it,” the deputy minister said.