Mangala‘s virgin purity gone ! Sister gets advertising rights ungoverned by laws; Selacine a corruption den..!

(Lanka-e-News - 17.Dec.2017, 11.45PM) The ‘Selacine Institute’ belonging to the media ministry  of Mangala Samaraweera has now transformed into a corruption and fraud den from all angles.  It is a matter for deep regret that while the monumental corruption and frauds during the era of deposed and discarded Rajapakses, are still being investigated this racket of the present media minister has surfaced.

It is a close friend of Ruwan Ferdinands ,  the media secretary  to the media minister , by the name of Shantha Bandara Jayawardena who was  appointed as the chairman of ‘Selacine’ . Though  Selacine is doing the commercial advertisements of the government ,  still even the name of the chairman has not been made known via  the website of the ministry , which is a clear index of the inefficiency and ineptitude of Selacine. Even at the time of writing this article , it is Thusitha Jayawardena  the  name of the previous chairman  which is appearing .

Selacine chairman who passed the ‘dummy’ of Maithri to Rajapakses

Shantha Bandara who was appointed as the chairman of Selacine after Mangala became the media minister was the notorious culprit  who provided the ‘dummy’ of Maithripala to Rajapakses during the last presidential elections. The minister might not be aware of this , but his secretary Ferdinands cannot deny knowledge of that. Shantha Bandara is such  a  double faced ,double tongued,  ‘double dealer’. However , since Mangala and Shantha are cast in the same mould , and have the same double faced traits those traitorous activities are a matter of routine for them.

We deem it is our  duty in the interests of the public to  reveal some of the countless past villainies and sordid activities of Shantha Bandara …

He was one who had to  step down from the post of Director, Sirasa Television channel  because he  was incompetent and an utter ‘failure’. After  being relegated to the business division , as usual he flourished  on his private sly activities. After launching a program ‘Adha Kaale business” and conducting live interviews with high profile business magnates , created opportunities for himself to jointly do private business with them . When his wheeler dealer deals and illicit earnings  came to light , he was expelled from Sirasa. 

This corrupt turncoat who moved very closely  with Mahinda Rajapakse , along with Harin Gunawardena who initiated  the ‘Always breakdown ‘ program ,  commenced another similar program on the ITN. Through that program he insulted and humiliated  Ranil and Mangala of the opposition at that time , making them the butt of his jokes while also  trying to show that the opposition was splitting up.  He collected a cool Rs. 500,000.00 per month for that .

Being a wheeler dealer with a crooked mind he joined hands with Ruwan Ferdinands for clandestine reasons  so that he can make another fast buck if the UNP came to power. Actress Nadeesha Hemamali  was introduced to politics by Ruwan.  It was Shantha who performed the role of a pimp for Ruwan. During that period , it was this scoundrel who provided  many other facilities including transport, apart from supplying women to Ruwan.

Shantha the lickspittle who is skilled in snobbery and bootlicking , through Ruwan got himself introduced to the UNP bigwigs , secured the advertising rights of several good governance Government Lotteries Institutions after inaugurating  an advertising  Firm. Meanwhile making use of the connections he had with Mahinda’s government , through Shiral Lakthileke the NGO crook cum brief-less lawyer and Dayasiri Jayasekera, he was also able to obtain the SLFP faction advertisements. 

Shantha became the editor of the  tabloid part of  the Sathhanda newspaper of Ruwan , and with the introduction of new tele-drama actresses thereby , he disgraced the newspaper profession and made that a pimp’s profession.

After making arrangements to interview ministers for the Sathhanda newspaper , used that as an opportunity to obtain a job in an  advertising Co. 

One of the many rascally ‘crimes’ he committed was , supplying the dummy of Sirisena to Mahinda Rajapakse to enable him to cast the vote .Though Ruwan knew it , that incident was kept hidden from Mangala.

In any event , Shantha Bandara knew nothing about advertising  or publicity . Being a lickspittle and lackey by birth  he knew only  plain  bootlicking and arselicking  . If Mangala Samaraweera had any idea about ethics and etiquette he would never have  appointed such a  scoundrel as a chief of a State advertising Institution , while  he is already  the owner of a private advertising establishment . This is not only unlawful but also because of the  conflict of interests created by such an appointment .  Much worse , Mangala has now gone further and taken the initiative to make Selecine a private Institution.

Mangala favored his sister

No sooner Shantha took over duties as  Selacine chairman than  five advertising accounts  that were handled by  Selacine were transferred to Mangala’s sister . This was corruption through and through. Earlier on , when Selacine took   a decision regarding a television advertisement   payment  ,its  chairman saying ‘ we want quality badu (things)’  gave it to an outsider  through a coordinator for  actors and actresses  (quality ‘badu’ in chairman’s thesaurus)  making huge  disbursements  .When this corruption was questioned from the Chairman , he gave the above answer.

Although the previous chairpersons , took action to get the Lottery notices and advertisements to Selacine, now the advertisements of the 5 Lotteries including Development Lottery , Jayodha , Laksapathi and Super Ball had been given to ‘Bates Ads’ , a company belonging to  Jayanthi Chandani Gunawardena , the  own sister by birth of minister Mangala . By transferring these advertisements of the five lotteries to Minister’s sister , Shantha the shameless sycophant cum lickspittle somehow ingratiated himself into the favor of Mangala .

The Selacine which has made it a habit to obtain the signatures of artistes  on blank receipts has been  converted into a daily money earning  machine.  It is the policy of the chairman to pamper the favorites who helped him to create  the crooked  background , with the result he has opened  the gateway wide for massive corruption .

For instance when an advertisement of the Finance Ministry is being produced , payments are arranged to be made to  outside Institutions.   Yet , part of the 15 % commission from the scheduling had  not been  paid to the outside advertising establishment as their  commission. Yet  the new chairman while  saying it is his ‘new idea’ , is paying  scheduling monies  in millions to the outside sources. 

This amount in full or part being received by the chairman from those sources is obvious and cannot be precluded . For example , from a single  advertisement schedule of  Rs. Ten  million ,  Selacine gets Rs. 1.5 million.  5 % of that amount  is being channeled  out.. 

It is therefore  the duty of the minister having the prefix ’honorable’  to explain to the people who elected him  as their representative , why he is silent  as a grave when the Lotteries advertisements which were with Selacine are being transferred to his sister , and Selacine commissions are being channeled  to the outside? 

Undoubtedly  these corrupt individuals through the subterfuge  of converting the Selacine Institution under them  into a private establishment , are paving the way for bigger frauds, and   such rackets will be inevitable when that happens.

By Nuran Ekanayake

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by     (2017-12-17 23:54:07)