Inside facts of Coal Mafia in Sri Lanka

(Lanka-e-News -31.Oct.2014, 4.30PM) The Indian Coal Supplier who isACCUSEDOF creating a loss for CEB is – Taurian Iron & Steel Co.Pvt Ltd. This company is in existence from 1997. It fully owned by Sumit Bajla & Amith Bajla brothers who are based in Mumbai – NO SRI LANKAN OWNS ANY SHARE OR WORKS FOR THIS COMPANY. (www.tauriansteel.com)

The company does not have any local agent. This is the reason the CEB did not award the last tender to this company though they were USD 50 million cheaper than the current supplier. The secretary of the ministry of power brought in a rule to say that all participants must have a local agent and disqualified Taurian from the race despite the Presidential Appeal Board verdict of the award for Taurian.

The Coal Mafia of Sri Lanka consists of – Supplier : Noble Resources (who is supplying coal from day one to Sri Lanka. The past two years at their same high price cancelling any tender which was floated), Local Agent – Ravi Wijeratne (Casino Owner), Power Ministry Secretary Ferdinando (Crony of Ravi Wijeratne) & Journalist FarazSauketaley (Sunday Leader, PR Agent of Crown Casino of Ravi Wijeratne).

The coal mafia ensures that NO other company supply any coal to Sri Lanka. The below story is a result of the well planned strategy of this mafia.

The Story;

02 ships of Noble Resources – Half Unloaded – Gets stranded in bad weather in Norochchole. Emergency situation where any delay will result in coal catching fire. No unloading is possible for 06 more months (Monsoon). Lanka Coal Company (State Owned) & Ceylon Shipping Corporation (State Owned) makes desperate plea to coal mafia to help by taking the vessels out and bring them back after monsoon.

The coal mafia which makes all the money with the coal supply does not bother to help. They tell government to fly a kite and just pay for the coal. No solutions given.

LCC & CSC goes around the world, trying to look for someone to help. And only company which came in for rescue was Taurian.

Taurian says that they will take the 02 ships back, bring the same quantity back after monsoon but to compensate for the extra costs involved (Freight charges of taking the ships back and returning which will well over USD 3 Million) they be given 03 more ships of supply (At the same Noble Contract terms & Pricing).

Taurian signs proper, legal contract with CSC as agreed by LCC (and Definitely with the knowledge of then Minister) and takes the 02 ships away.

THIS UPSETS THE COAL MAFIA BECAUSE THEY NOW KNOW THAT A SECOND PLAYER IS ENTERING AS A SUPPLIER INTO SRI LANKA.

After 06 months, Taurian innocently brings back the 02 ships, expecting to get the LC’s for 03 more ships.

Coal Mafia (Faraz) writes full page articles continuously (Sunday Leader) mentioning the the coal of Taurian is low quality. Ferdinando acts as per the plan and stops the unloading of the coal.

Taurian Submits the Load Port Test Certificate which certifies that the quality of the coal is good. Coal Mafia manipulates the local SGS certificate to show that the quality is poor.

As per the contract, CEB sends the third party samples to a “Neutral Testing Agency” in Indonesia which confirms that the coal is indeed good.

Ferdinando gets stumped, refers the matter to CID then to the Attorney General. Attorney General very correctly says that Taurian is not at fault and to implement the contract – Means give 03 more ships to Taurian and then conclude the contract – This way LCC would have got their entire coal back.

But NO ACTION WHATSOEVER is taken by LCC, CEB or CSC for the fear of Ferdinando. Contract is ignored and incomplete and no one speaks about it for two years (Due to the influence of the Coal Mafia) until this week.

There is no major bad quality scenario (of any it must be technically proven and contractually recovered from Taurian) or Corruption aspect on the Taurian deal. The real corruption is with the Coal Mafia and now they are diverting the attention towards Taurian misleading the public and also to frame the former minister with baseless allegations.

It is such a joke that a state owned company violates a signed contract with a foreign company SIMPLY BASED ON A SUNDAY LEADER ARTICLE.

TAURIAN

Has signed a contract, if Taurian has breached this contract, it is a simple matter of implementing the contract or taking legal action against them – Why was any of these not done for the last two years?????

Noble – Coal Mafia

First tender must have been awarded to Holcim but was won by Noble violating procedures.

Supplies at a very high price (CEB loses 25 Million USD minimum annually).

Period covered by the first tender ended 02 years ago. But they continue to supply.

Last two tenders (one won by Taurian, the other won by Swiss/Singapore) cancelled by Ferdinando.

Noble is blacklisted by Pakistan government for these same practices.

Never supplies on time or supplies the agreed quantities – Last season they were supposed to bring 700,000MT but brought only 300,000MT.

Future

Right thinking people must campaign to run a legitimate tender and award the coal supply contract to a lowest responsive bidder – Breaking the Noble Monopoly.

Either implement the Taurian contract or legally correct it instead of sitting doing nothing and instead of misleading public with baseless stories mentioning Taurian thus letting the real culprits get away.