‘No Uthuru Mithuru’ accounts: Dullas to be arrested!

Saturday, 25 April 2015

The financial crime investigation division has uncovered a massive financial irregularity in the railway department during the period Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma was the transport minister, and he is to be arrested soon, say police sources.

Dullas had awarded contracts without calling for tenders for repair work of the northern railway track under the ‘Uthuru Mithuru’ project. Neither the transport ministry nor the railway department had maintained accounts for those repairs. Top officials in the two institutions are surprised as to how funds had been given in that manner.

Almost all officials who had given statements to the FCID in this regard had said that they had merely followed the instructions of minister Alahapperuma. Former secretary to the ministry is also to be arrested.

Alahapperuma, together with 25 others, is also having Colombo chief magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya issued summons for them to appear before the court on May 08 on a charge of contempt of court.

Nepotism Continues: Foreign Ministry Tight-Lipped About Sonali Samarasinghe’s ‘Political Appointment’

April 24, 2015 

Sonali Samarasinghe, widow of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the slain Editor of the Sunday Leader, has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s ‘Minister Counsellor’ at the country’s mission in the UN Headquarters, New York, it has been reported in a website that is reputed to be run by persons politically aligned with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera. The website claimed that the appointment was approved by Cabinet on Wednesday the 22nd of April.

Sonali Smarasinghe

Samarasinghe earlier secured a diplomatic posting in the Sri Lankan High Commission in Australia. This was in the 2001-2004 UNP Government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe. She was and is not a career diplomat.

The appointment comes in the wake of the Ministry recalling all ‘politically appointed’ diplomats following Maithripala Sirisena winning the Presidential Election on the 8th of January 2015.

Earlier this month Minster Mangala Samaraweera released the resultsof the long-delayed foreign service examinations.“This will enable the many vacancies currently in the foreign service to be filled through a transparent, professional and meritocratic process.” a foreign ministry official told Colombo Telegraph.

“The self-serving Rajapaksa regime not only posted political appointees to as ambassadors abroad, they also staffed the second and third tier of missions with their cronies. These incompetent individuals shamed Sri Lanka on the world state – even using embassies for illegal business activities,” she further said     Read More