Sri Lanka Government has requested the NGO sector to donate their allocated funds for the remaining quarters of the year for the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members of the Sri Lanka parliament receive peaks and benefits amount to millions of Rupees annually and the practice has continued during the pandemic as well.
President Rajapaksa’s fund called ITUKAMA to fight the pandemic collected Rs. 1,752,402,793.24 from donors including people. Ony a 27% of the find has been spent so far and the remaining balance is Rs. 1,360,922,969.24.
A statement issued by the Presidential Media Division says that it has bought 10 Ambulances for the sum of LKR 194,000,000.00. But the ambulances have not arrived in the country yet.
On top of this International donors too contributed a huge amount of money to the Sri Lanka government to fight the pandemic.
Raja Goonaratne, Director-General (DG) of the National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organizations, said that considering the current COVID-19 crisis in the country, he had requested INGOs and NGOs to donate the balance funds to the healthcare machinery that is short of supplies, reports the Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times further reports that:
Last Tuesday, the DG called for an urgent zoom meeting with heads of INGOs and NGOs to explain the urgent need to meet the medical requirements of the country in the battle against the pandemic.
The next day, he gave comprehensive details of the medical requirements for public hospitals.
“As the government is making every effort to control the pandemic and ensure the safety of the people, the INGOs and NGOs also have a big role to play at this critical juncture,” Goonaratne said in a letter.
He also noted that Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi had informed him of the urgent need to buy High Flow Oxygen machines for state hospitals and look into the possibility of buying those machines with the assistance of INGOs and NGOs.
