The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has instructed the Ministry of Environment to enhance awareness on the national flower of Sri Lanka.
On a Cabinet decision in June 2015, the Ministry has identified the Water Lily as the national flower of Sri Lanka but due to inadequate awareness, the masses as well as public institutions and agencies still identify the Blue Water Lily as the national flower of Sri Lanka.
COPA has observed that this is due to lack of publicity. It has instructed that the National Institute of Education, University Grants Commission and other relevant agencies under the Environment Ministry should be roped in to create awareness while also exploiting the mode of newspaper advertisements for this purpose.
It has been reported that even schools, Government and non-Government organisations are yet to be aware of the Cabinet decision of 2015 to recognise the Water Lily as the national flower.
These matters were contained in the first report of the Second Session of the Ninth Parliament of the COPA Committee, which was tabled in Parliament on Friday (May 20) by the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, MP Prof. Tissa Vitharana.
This report contains information on the investigations of 7 Government Institutions summoned by the COPA and one Special Audit Report, during the period from August 4, 2021 to November 19, 2021.