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A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
Friday, June 26, 2015
By Hasitha Ayeshmantha-June 24, 2015, 6:38 pm
Minister of
Highways and Investment Promotion Kabir Hashim, Minister of Finance Ravi
Karunanayake and Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that the former government has ‘misused’ Rs 28 billion which were initially allocated by for road development projects.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that the former government has ‘misused’ Rs 28 billion which were initially allocated by for road development projects.
Addressing the media at a recent press briefing in Colombo, Finance
Minister Karunanayake alleged that the former government has misused
Rs.28 billion off a fund which was set-up from loans acquired from the
National Savings Bank (NSB) for road development projects. Minister of
Highways and Investment Promotion Kabir Hashim and Minister of Industry
and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen were also present at the briefing.
‘The Opposition keeps on blindly lashing out at the new government
claiming that we are acquiring unnecessary debts, but these figures
prove that they are the ones who were in debt over their heads. Our
investigations have revealed that the former government has acquired a
total of Rs.834 billion in debts; this is a substantial amount of debt
even considering the development projects, Karunanayake added.
The Finance Minister further stressed that the new government was able
to bring down the acquired debt to Rs.584 billion within a short period
of time. The minister also remarked that the former government had
launched road development projects worth over Rs.594 billion without
proper Cabinet approval.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, Minister of Highways and Investment
Promotion and the General Secretary of the United National Party Kabir
Hashim said that the Ministry of Highways is an institution which was
criticized massively in the past. He added that even though the former
government claims that road development projects were taking place
throughout the country, he has received a phenomenal amount of complains
from rural areas claiming that that they do not have proper roads.
‘The first thing that came to my attention as soon as I took over the
Ministry of Highways was that the ministry lacks transparency when it
comes to the funds allocated for the previous government’s road
development projects. We have discovered several instances where road
development projects were handed out to the contractors without
conducting a proper competitive bidding process, Minister Hashim added.
He also maintained that according to the indicators provided by a
survey, the cost for 1km of a dual lane road could range from Rs. 75
million to Rs.120 million, depending on the nature of the land. However,
the Minister of Highways asserted that the previous government has
listed down funds ranging from Rs.200 million to Rs.700 million for 1km
of certain road development projects.
‘It was also revealed that the contracts for road development projects
were handed out purely through influence and furthermore, it was learnt
that a great sum of money could have been saved by cutting off some main
contractors who deployed subcontractors for their quota and earned a
pure profit by doing nothing. Another substantial amount of funds have
gone missing during the time of elections as well, and now as a result
certain projects are on hold, he said.
The minister said that all the necessary details have been forwarded to
the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) and that a special
anti-corruption committee is appointed to resolve the matter and make
sure that the responsible parties are prosecuted by the law.
