COAL TENDER EXPOSED!
Monday, August 3, 2015
-Gross irregularities in awarding multi-million dollar coal tender for past five years
-Ministry Secretary expresses shock, disappointment in letter to Presidential Secretariat
In a startling turn of events to the multimillion-dollar coal tender, Power and Energy Ministry Secretary Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda has written to the Senior Assistant Secretary to the President, stating that there were gross irregularities in the awarding of tenders for the supply of coal to the thermal power plant in Norochcholai during the past five years. The letter has been sent to T.T. Upulmalee, Senior Assistant Secretary to the President, on July 24, over procurement of coal for Lakvijaya Power Plant in Puttalam. |
| Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda |
He says that one supplier has been favoured ‘not through the Standard Tender Procedure but by Cabinet Decisions.’ Dr. Batagoda says “every single time, the tender has been awarded against the decision of the Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (SCAPC).
“In my 30 years of public service, I have never seen such a situation,” he said.
“This looks to me as if the bidders have more power in making decisions on this tender than the SCAPC or the appeal board.”
Dr. Batagoda says in the letter, that on his taking up office, the minister had specifically instructed him to ensure that all mismanagement or irregularities, which occurred in the last five years should not be repeated and the tender procedure has to be clearly managed.
The Secretary alleges manipulation by Nobel Resources Pte. Limited as it is amply proved that they were in possession of confidential information, which should only be known to the SCAPC and the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC). “In effect this company has accepted that it has illegally gained access to confidential information which it is not supposed to know,” the letter states.
“This is the situation of this tender. I honestly believe that if this trend continues like this, the country cannot move.
The way the appeals have been written, the language they are using, the corruption charges they are making clearly indicates that this country is in real trouble. My opinion is that this five year drama of this tender should now end and the government should now learn to respect SCAPC decisions which are made by respectable very senior public officials, unless there are serious lapses on their part,” the Secretary states concluding his letter.
The Daily News is in possession of a trove of documents, which clearly maps out the suspicious pattern followed throughout the tender procedure. Our initial perusal of these documents show that there has been a well oiled mechanism set up to tamper with tender procedures for government contracts, carried on with impunity. At the centre of this controversy is the Procurement Appeal Board (PAB) appointed by the Executive. The PAB is shown to have overridden many of the decisions made by the SCAPC and TEC to the advantage of one particular supplier.
The PAB has always consisted of three retired public officials. Justice K. Viknarajah chaired the previous committee while Justice Hector Yapa is the current chairman. Although members in the PAB have been changed over the years, one particular member, retired auditor general P.A. Pematilaka has remained since 2009.
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