National Audit Exposes Massive Waste Undermining Sri Lanka’s Livestock Sector

Sri Lanka’s already-fragile animal husbandry sector has been dealt another blow, with the Auditor General’s latest report uncovering a series of costly missteps, failed investments and systemic weaknesses inside the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH).

The audit, covering the year ending December 31, 2024, reveals that more than Rs. 200 million in public funds has been locked up in collapsed breeding projects, oversized equipment purchases and chronic underutilisation of budget allocations raising serious questions about the country’s livestock development strategy.

At the heart of the audit is the disastrous Boer goat breeding project, launched in 2019 to introduce high-quality breeder goats from Australia. The government invested Rs. 37.3 million to import 100 animals, with a five-year plan to distribute 250 improved goats to farming communities. Instead, the project imploded. An outbreak of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis (CAE)an incurable viral disease infected the herd during quarantine, crippling breeding operations.

Despite spending an additional Rs. 75.3 million on maintenance and disease management, the DAPH failed to salvage the initiative. By the end of 2024, distribution had been suspended entirely, and 141 diseased goats remained at the Imbulandanda breeding centre.

A special committee recommended culling the infected herd in January 2024, but the department failed to act for more than a year continuing to spend public money on a hopelessly compromised stock. The project’s total loss now stands at Rs. 112.6 million, the audit confirms.

Agriculture economists warn that such failures have far-reaching consequences for farmers who depend on improved breeding stock to increase meat and milk yields. With local goat milk production growing only marginally over the past decade and demand rising sharply, the collapse of a flagship breeding initiative further widens the gap between national livestock potential and output. Industry analysts also note that Sri Lanka imports over 60% of its annual requirement of goat meat, underscoring the economic cost of failed domestic breeding programmes.

The audit also exposed troubling procurement decisions in the veterinary health sector. A Rs. 96.5 million high-capacity bioreactor purchased in 2022 for vaccine production sits under-utilised due to a dramatic mismatch between output capacity and national demand.

Although the machine can produce up to 1.2 million doses, the country requires only about 300,000 doses under the relevant disease-control programme. The DAPH disputes the output figures, asserting a maximum capacity of 500,000 doses, but auditors argue that the purchase still reflects poor planning and weak demand assessment.

This misalignment comes on top of earlier inefficiencies. Between 2018 and 2020, Sri Lanka spent Rs. 89.3 million on vaccine imports costs that could have been avoided with more efficient disease-control strategies adopted sooner, the report states.

Further compounding the issue is chronic underutilisation of financial allocations, with Rs. 242.6 millionor 15% of the department’s total provision left unused in 2024. Experts say such budget lapses indicate institutional paralysis at a time when the livestock sector urgently needs investment in genetics, disease control, pasture development and farmer training.

The Auditor General’s findings paint a stark picture: a sector burdened by poor planning, delayed decision-making, avoidable waste and structural weaknesses. At a time when livestock is critical for rural incomes, nutrition and import substitution, and these failures threaten to further undermine Sri Lanka’s food-security goals