President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday (10) said that the Health Ministry is the most corrupt state organization.

Speaking at a meeting of nurses at Maharagama Youth Center, he said that there were about 21,000 tenders processing in the ministry annually. This gives opportunity for large scale corruption, he added.

The President stated that he understood the magnitude of corruption in the state sector as himself was once the Minister of Health and he added that in comparison, Health Ministry officials are the most corrupt.

He said that the ministry is more like a company than a government institution.

President Sirisena also said that his attempt at cleaning up the Health Ministry and his plans to make it a better institution were all blocked by authorities higher than him.

Maithripala Sirisena was the Minister of Health from April 2010 until he left the government in November 2014. He was also the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.