Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Yahapaalanaya’ gives position to Kanthi who cheated money from ‘Deyata Kirula’

Yahapaalanaya’ gives position to Kanthi who cheated money from ‘Deyata Kirula’

Jul 02, 201
Coming to power with a big hullabaloo to eliminate thieves, frauds and the corrupt, the ‘Yahapaalana’ regime, too is proving to be no different, or rather worse, on that account. There is news that a female additional secretary of a ministry, who was accused of abusing state funds and imprisoned during the Rajapaksa regime, has been reinstated by the ‘Yahapaalanaya’. This is about her.

In 2013, the ‘Deyata Kirula’ exhibition was held at the premises of Hardy Technical College in Ampara, and its organizing chairman was minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya. Additional secretary to Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry Kanthi Gunawardena did the coordination work as its CEO. She had given a Rs. 17,700,000 contract to build lavatories at the exhibition premises to the husband of her younger sister. Kanthi herself filled the tender application. Furthermore, the application from the registrar of companies to register a company to the name of her brother-in-law, who did not have a construction firm to his name until then, too, was filled by her in her own handwriting.
After making the payment for the hurriedly registered company of her brother-in-law, it became known that Rs. 15,000,000 of that money had gone to Kanthi’s bank account. She had not at least taken steps to be careful in this fraudulent act, maybe because of the political influence she had enjoyed at the time.
But, in 2014 itself, the frauds in ‘Deyata Kirula’ came to be revealed, and Kanthi was arrested, produced before the Colombo magistrate’s court and remanded on charges of abuse of state funds. She was released on bail six months later. The best part of the story comes in 2016.
Under the ‘Yahapaalana’ government that came to power with tons of promises to eliminate corruption, Kanthi was reinstated by the Public Services Commission secretary Gamini Seneviratne, as an additional secretary to the Land Reclamation Ministry. The case against her is pending before courts. She is still on bail. Not even a disciplinary inquiry has been conducted against her. With the blessings of ‘Yahapaalanaya’ she has been reinstated.
People had a big dream that under the new government, the establishment of the independent commissions will bring positive results for democracy in Sri Lanka. For whoever’s wants, what the ‘Yahapaalana’ regime too, does is to give positions to the corrupt. This is the ‘Yahapaalana’ regime turning its backside and showing its nudity to the people, who had had great expectations of good governance.