By Himangi Jayasundere
The Ministry of Finance is carrying out a thorough check on purchases worth billions of rupees, made by the Ministry of Defence during the last one to one and a half years, Minister of Defence Tilak Marapana said on Monday.

He said that some of the items purchased during this period were difficult to identify while several items had been bought on credit. " No proper accounting has been maintained and it has posed a big problem for the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury" he said speaking at a press conference yesterday.

He said that there was no documentation for the purchase of several items and whether money has been paid for them or whether the government owed those from whom the goods had been purchased.

"We have no estimates of the amounts, it may be billions of rupees" he claimed.

According to the minister some purchases have been made directly through the Treasury.

He said that the Finance Ministry was doing a thorough check of facts and figures.

"We are trying to ascertain with our foreign suppliers on what has been supplied what has been paid for and what is outstanding".

He said that this year’s defence budget could be very much less than last year’s.

"It could be very much less than last years because we don’t propose to buy new equipment on the same scale as in previous years" he said.

But he agreed that the ministry could end up spending the same amount due to overdue payments for the last year.

Last year’s defence budget was around Rs. 60 billion.