US company says Rajapaksa government owed money

Saturday, 21 February 2015 

Connie Mack, executive vice-president of Levick Strategic Communications LLC, has reportedly said its client, Sri Lanka’s central bank — whose chief has been replaced by the new government — was three months or $180,000 in arrears on payments for the contract it terminated January 28.

Mack has said he planned to meet with the Sri Lankan ambassador soon to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the US, Prasad Kariyawasam has said Sri Lanka has terminated lobbying contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars a month that the previous government had signed to help it win friends in Washington amid war crimes allegations.

An Associated Press report stated that investment in lobbyists to foster political and economic ties had gathered steam last summer, in the dying months of the administration of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but with little apparent benefit, as Sri Lanka’s international isolation deepened over its refusal to credibly probe civilian deaths during the civil war that ended 2009.

Justice Department online records show Sri Lanka signed eight contracts with such groups from 2014, with monthly fees ranging from $5,000 to $75,000.

“The new government does not see a reason or requirement to have lobbying groups at this juncture,” Sri Lankan Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam has said. “To my knowledge, all those contracts have been terminated since the election of the new government.”

Vinoda Basnayake of Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough LLP has said soon after the election, the embassy informed his company that its $35,000 monthly contract was not being extended. Nelson Mullins was one of several groups hired to serve Sajin De Vass Gunawardena, a lawmaker who had advised Rajapaksa on foreign affairs. Basnayake said its fees for the last quarter had been paid in advance.