Sajith, Rajitha Courted By Drug Mafia
March 15, 2015
“The Health Ministry is the most corrupt state organization… Health Ministry officials are the most corrupt in the state sector.” A bold allegation, it may seem, but one that was levelled nonetheless by President Maithripala Sirisena when he addressed a meeting of the All Ceylon Nurses Association at the Maharagama Youth Centre on 10 February. “I was the Health Minister in the former government and I know how corrupt the ministry is”, he said. “The present Health Minister, Dr Rajitha Senaratne, [has] all the freedom he needs to do his job properly and I believe he has embraced the challenge of cleansing the Ministry of all corruption.”
Despite having received massive support from President Rajapaksa and former First Lady Shiranthi, oncologists Mahendra Perera and Jayantha Balawardane were out ‘celebrating’ the victory of the UNP’s deputy leader Sajith Premadasa in the election of 8 January. | File photo
To do that, however, Minister Senaratne will need a very big broom indeed. Just ten days previously, a senior regulatory official in his ministry had hosted a gala reception at Water’s Edge, one of Colombo’s most prestigious venues. To it were invited the private sector’s biggest purveyors of drugs and medical supplies. Incredibly (if not naively), the entire cost of the lavish extravaganza was met by the official, from his personal funds. No one seems to have stopped to ask why a government official should spend his personal money to host a party for Colombo’s drug moguls, or how it was that he had made so much money as to be able to squander it so freely. Invitees were told that the purpose of the function was to introduce them to the new minister, who would also be in attendance. Corruption in Sri Lanka’s health sector is not conducted furtively: it is done out in the open, for all to see, with complete impunity.
