Ding-dong verbal battle over expenditure on roads

By Maheesha Mudugamuwa-June 3, 2015, 12:33 am 

The Highways and Investment Promotion Ministry yesterday alleged that the former Ports and Highways Ministry headed by ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa had obtained an out of budget loan from several local banks amounting to Rs. 151 billion for 28 road projects.

Minister Kabir Hashim’s Office, responding to a media statement made by ex-President Rajapaksa that the Highways and Investment Promotion Ministry was unable to complete certain road projects due to the misuse of funds, said that the misuse of funds had taken place during the Rajapaksa regime.

The Minister’s office, in a media statement, maintained that the National Savings Bank (NSB) had granted a loan of Rs. 55 billion to the former Ports and Highways Ministry.

The Ministry said that the Road Development Authority (RDA) had drawn an advance of Rs. 28 billion from the NSB’s Rs. 55 billion loan. Approval for the draw-down was based on falsified progress reports produced by the RDA related to the bank funded road projects.

The statement added that the RDA in defiance of financial regulations which state that the authority couldn’t lend money to a Ministry, had lent Rs. 3.7 billion to the Ministry of Ports and Highways for the repayment of outstanding bills.

A further Rs. 18.1 billion was used to repay local segments of several foreign funded projects. However, financial records indicated that only Rs. 6.14 billion was required for repayment. The balance funds remained unaccounted for, it said adding that the road projects which were being funded by those local bank loans were awarded following unsolicited bids.

The Ministry also alleged that due to the misuse of funds during the previous regime, many contractors had been unable to continue their work on road projects due to unavailability of funds.