The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has instructed the Secretary to the Ministry of Labour to immediately develop a digital data system that allows the Central Bank and the Department of Labour to jointly access data, including Employee Provident Fund payments.
The committee highlighted the need for the Department of Labour should have a regularly updated data system.
The directive was issued during a COPA meeting in Parliament, chaired by State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, to review the Auditor General’s reports and the Department of Labour’s performance for 2021 and 2022.
Questions were also raised on the financial allocations for upgrading the existing digital data system.
Chairman of the committee said that 84% of the funds allocated for this purpose remained unitilized in 2021, 53% in 2022 and 91% in 2023.
Officials said that although the Department of Labour was the first to adopt digitization, the proposal to prepare the National Labour Market Information System was delayed, with the Committee Chair raising doubts if the delays were deliberate. (Newswire)
