MCC has an office under the PM’s nose!

Wimal was right after all:

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya-April 1, 2019, 7:59 pm 

In Parliament on March 18, Opposition MP Wimal Weerawansa claimed that an office of the United States’ Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) had been set up at Temple Trees. Ports and Shipping Minister Sagala Ratnayake was swift to deny the charge, challenging Weerawansa to either prove his allegation or resign.

According to the website of the US embassy in Colombo, the MCC has a ‘special purpose unit’ called the Compact Development Team, not in Temple Trees but in the Office of the Prime Minister. Weerawansa may be wrong on the technicality of the physical location of the MCC unit, but he is right in his fundamental charge that such a unit exists in a building closely associated with the Prime Minister, namely, his Office. Surely it is disingenuous for the government to accuse Weerawansa of ‘spreading misinformation’ when for all intents and purposes an MCC unit is in fact operating under the Prime Minister’s nose, officially, and with his blessings. Why are the PM and his loyalists so defensive as to deny its existence?

According to the notice posted on the US embassy website:

"The Government has authorized the Compact Development Team ("CDT"), a special purpose unit established in the Policy Development Office of the Office of the Prime Minister, to conduct certain procurements on its behalf. At a later date, the Government expects to establish an accountable entity, MCA-Sri Lanka, to assume certain responsibilities from the CDT and to oversee implementation of the Compact."

The embassy procurement notice (reproduced below in full) relates to the period October 1, 2018 to April 1, 2019, and invites those interested in applying for contracts to supply goods, works and services financed under the programme, to contact one Mr Pradeep Perera of the Compact Development Team at mccpradeepperera@gmail.com.

The author of the web post, mentioned at the end of the notice is "Compact Development Team, Policy Development Office, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Sri Lanka."

Many questions arise from the notice itself, and also from the reluctance of those responsible in government to come clean about what the MCC is about. According to the US embassy "The Government of Sri Lanka (the "Government") has applied for a grant from MCC in the form of a Compact." If the MCC has called for applications for procurements, does this mean that the programme has already been ‘approved,’ and by whom? Are members of the cabinet and the President, who heads it, aware of what the ‘Compact’ entails? Why was it not debated in parliament? The secrecy surrounding these negotiations and the government’s utter lack of transparency regarding this project is a matter for concern.

The embassy further says "The proposed Compact will provide approximately USD 480,000,000 toward certain activities in the transportation and land sector …." It seems to be deliberately vague about what those ‘activities’ are. US ambassador Alaina Teplitz at an event in Matara last month is reported to have said the MCC will focus on ‘certain issues connected with transportation as well as roads and land registration in Sri Lanka." Again, there was no elaboration on the specifics.

Any programme that changes laws relating to land use and ownership, or that builds or controls infrastructure such as roads and railways, would need to be carried out in accordance with national policy. Aren’t there issues of sovereignty if funding for such projects is contingent on accepting externally imposed plans? For some time now, land rights activists and analysts have warned of potentially disastrous consequences of reforms to land laws contemplated by the Wickremesinghe-led government. President Maithripala Sirisena after his abortive attempt to sack Wickremesinghe from the prime minister’s post in October last year said he had blocked two ‘anti-national’ Land Bills the PM sought to introduce. He said these new laws sought to allow foreigners to buy any land in the country, both privately or publicly owned.

It is well known that regional as well as extra-regional powers today seek to secure a foothold in this island in order to wrest strategic advantage over rivals. Sri Lanka is in the crosshairs because it is strategically located at a point along vital sea lanes, the control of which is intensely contested by big powers. Against this backdrop, the vagueness on specifics relating to the MCC has led to unease and speculation. If roads and railway-lines are mapped and funded by external powers for their own strategic purposes, they could have potentially destabilizing effects. It has been alleged (by MP Weerawansa among others) that the MCC envisages an electric railway line that would bisect the country in a straight line linking Trincomalee with Colombo.

Readers may recall how in January this year the US military carried out what it called a ‘temporary cargo transfer initiative’ where US Air Force planes brought cargo into the Bandaranaike International Airport - which is a commercial airport - and transferred supplies to an aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis of the US 7th Fleet. The embassy sought to present the operation to the Sri Lankan public as ‘a series of commercial transactions.’ US embassy statements did not specify where the aircraft carrier was, but some reports suggested it was in waters off Trincomalee. If the US plans to use the ports of Trincomalee and Colombo as part of a logistics hub to support its military activities in the Indian Ocean, the relevance of a high-speed rail link connecting the two port cities becomes obvious.

Another aspect of the MCC that casts the operation in a dubious light is that out of the $480 million said to be a ‘grant’ under the programme, a significant portion is likely to find its way back to the US in the form of contracts awarded to US-based consultants and suppliers. The notice on the US embassy website says procurements will be "open to all bidders/consultants from eligible source countries" as defined in the MCC guidelines. But, tucked away as it is on an inside page of the embassy’s website, how many from countries other than the US are likely to get this information? Needless to say, the real issue here is not the potential loss of ‘grant’ money, but the implicit bartering of state sovereignty, and the government’s duplicity in seeking to market a superpower’s designs as a ‘development’ project.

Below is the MCC procurement notice appearing on the website of the US embassy in Colombo as retrieved on 30th March 2019, from the dropdown menu titled ‘Sri Lanka Compact – October 1, 2018 – April 1, 2019’ at: https://lk.usembassy.gov/embassy/colombo/contracting-opportunities/

Sri Lanka Compact – October 1, 2018 – April 1, 2019

The Millennium Challenge Corporation ("MCC") is a U.S. Government agency that assists developing countries committed to good governance, economic freedom, and investment in their people. The Government of Sri Lanka (the "Government") has applied for a grant from MCC in the form of a Compact and intends to apply a part of the grant to contracts for goods, works and services. The proposed Compact will provide approximately USD 480,000,000 toward certain activities in the transportation and land sectors.

The Government has authorized the Compact Development Team ("CDT"), a special purpose unit established in the Policy Development Office of the Office of the Prime Minister, to conduct certain procurements on its behalf. At a later date, the Government expects to establish an accountable entity, MCA-Sri Lanka, to assume certain responsibilities from the CDT and to oversee implementation of the Compact.

This General Procurement Notice is based on a Procurement Plan for the period October 1, 2018 to April 1, 2019.

SELECTION OF CONSULTING FIRMS:

Procurement Agent Services

Fiscal Agent Services

SELECTION OF INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS:

Technical Evaluation Panel Members

PROCUREMENT OF NON-CONSULTANT SERVICES:

Banking Services

Contracts for Goods, Works and Services financed under the Program will be implemented according to the principles, rules and procedures set out in the MCC Programme Procurement Guidelines ("MCC PPG"), which can be found on MCC’s website at https://www.mcc.gov/ppg.

The procurements will be open to all bidders/consultants from eligible source countries, as defined in the MCC PPG.

A Specific Procurement Notice ("SPN") for each contract to be tendered under the competitive bidding procedures and for each consultant contract will be announced on the United Nations Development Business (UNDB) Online at http://www.devbusiness.com/, the Development Gateway Market (dgMarket) at http://mcc.dgmarket.com/, in local newspapers, and in other media outlets, as appropriate.

Interested eligible suppliers, contractors and consultants requiring additional information, should contact Mr. Pradeep Perera of the Compact Development Team at mccpradeepperera@gmail.com.

Compact Development Team, Policy Development Office, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Sri Lanka