The Ministries of Agriculture and Plantation Industries are to appoint a committee to investigate the alleged corruption and irregularities that have taken place during the past few years at Milco Private Limited, it is learnt.

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, and officials and representatives of trade unions of Milco engaged in a discussion on Tuesday (9).

During the discussion, the trade union representatives pointed out that the production capacity of Milco, which was 165,000 litres, had later gone down to 55,000 litres, and claimed that the management was primarily responsible for the situation. They said that Milco had suffered a setback due to large-scale corruption and irregularities. Although production capacity had gone down in the recent past, they said that the management had spent large sums of money to purchase raw material.

Considering their request to initiate an investigation regarding the matter at the Ministry level, Amaraweera instructed the Ministry's Secretary Janaka Dharmakeerthi, who is also serving as Milco Chairman, to appoint a team of officials from the Agriculture and Plantation Industries Ministries to carry out an investigation. He also requested the trade unions within Milco to set aside political party affiliations and work towards bringing the organisation into a profit-making status in the coming months.

In December 2023, the then-Chairman of Milco, Renuka Perera resigned from the said post, citing the Government’s preparations to restructure it involving an Indian company. Claiming that he had had to accept the responsibility as Milco Chairman during a period when it had not been able to achieve expected goals – in the midst of shortages of fuel and other commodities, and economic issues in the country – he said, however, that the management led by him was able to make Milco a competitive and profitable organisation.