Saturday, March 19, 2016

Sri Lanka’s New Constitution: New Era In Island-Nation’s Politics – Analysis

By Sugeeswara Senadhira*-MARCH 15, 2016

Sri Lanka took a significant step towards adopting a new constitution for the island nation. A resolution submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe seeking parliamentary approval for the appointment of a constitutional assembly was adopted unanimously on March 10, 2016.

There were speculations of a vote on the resolution and MPs remained in the parliamentary premises till evening. However, the House gave its approval after Leader of the House University Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella read out the amendments. The original resolution was amended with the amendments submitted by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of which President Maithripala Sirisena is the Chairman, Joint Opposition of the supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) incorporated into it.

At the end of the debate, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that the House would be converted into an assembly where the formulation of the new constitution and reforming the electoral system would be taken up in the near future. Reforming the elections would not be taken as a separate issue and it would be incorporated into the draft Bill of the new constitution.

Abolishing of the Executive Presidency is one of the campaign promises of Maithripala Sirisena at the last Presidential Election. After coming to power he said there was a need of a new electoral system and pledged that he would “work at my utmost to make that wish a reality.”

Keeping with the Presidential Election promise, President Sirisena made a strong bid to dilute the Executive Presidency by devolving some of its powers to the Parliament by introducing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Although substantial changes were proposed in the first draft, the Supreme Court ruled out most of them as they require a National Referendum in addition to the two-third majority in Parliament. However, the successful passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in Parliament with an overwhelming majority has resulted in the executive presidency ushered in by the 1978 Constitution losing some its powers.

The abolishing of executive presidency will require a two third majority in Parliament and a national referendum. The drafting of a new constitution and getting it passed by Parliament sitting as a Constituent Assembly, as it was done in 1978, is the task now and this process could benefit from the experience gained during the drafting of the 19th Amendment. The experiences of the last amendment included initial drafting, Supreme Court preview of the draft, long winding debate in media, enactment of the final bill and its adoption.

International assistance in search of missing Sri Lankan’s

Mar 19, 2016

A human rights organization in Colombo has started a discussion with an international organization in search of the accurate figures of missing people in Sri Lanka during the war time.

Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) and members of the international commission on missing persons (ICMP) jointly participated for a round table discussion organized by the Centre for Human Rights & Development (CHRD).

Families of the disappeared people from the north and south participated in this round table discussion held at a private hotel in Colombo on the 17th and 18th of March.

Disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda’s wife Sandya Ekneligoda said the mechanism adopted by Guatemala to investigate the missing persons can be followed here.

Government office

She said discussions were focused how the office started by the government in search of missing persons should be formed.

Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) convened a similar round table discussion in Trincomalee recently.

In November last year the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) met the people suffered in the war, relatives of the missing people, members of the civil society and had discussions.

Government sponsorship

Secretary of the CHRD, Sundaram Mahendran said that Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) was able to search factual information’s of the genocide happened in Guatemala and information’s about missing persons.

Sundaram Mahendran said the organization was able to search of people who were massacred and able to exhume body parts of victims who were buried and able to help the members of the family to pay their last respect. He said the Guatemalan government has given its full permission for the task.

He further said it would be doubtful how the Sri Lankan government would render powers to the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) to reveal information’s about similar incidents happened in Sri Lanka.

International commission on missing persons (ICMP) has informed the United Nations about 22,000 missing persons during the war and the post war era in Sri Lanka.

The United Nations has estimated that nearly 40,000 – 70,000 people died during the last phase of the war. However, Mannar bishop Rayappu Joseph giving evidence to the Lessons learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) said more than 140,000 people are missing.

Sri Lankan government refuses to release Tamil political prisoners

By Subash Somachandran and S. Jayanth -15 March 2016

Fourteen Sri Lankan Tamil political prisoners ended a hunger strike of nearly three weeks last Friday at Welikada prison in Colombo after Prison Reforms and Rehabilitation Minister D.M. Swaminathan claimed he would expedite their cases. The government, however, refused the hunger strikers’ demand for the unconditional release of all Tamil political detainees.

The continued incarceration without trial of hundreds of Tamils not only exposes the ongoing repression and discrimination against the country’s Tamil minority. It is part of an escalating attack on the democratic rights of all sections of the Sri Lankan working class.

On February 29, 75 detainees at the Welikada prison held a one-day hunger strike in support of the 14 Tamil hunger strikers. Relatives and supporters of the protesting Tamil prisoners also held pickets and sit-down demonstrations in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar in the north of the island over the past two weeks. Last Friday, Jaffna University students demonstrated to demand the release of the Tamil detainees.

There are still over 160 Tamil political prisoners being held without trial in Sri Lankan jails. Some were arrested during the nearly 30-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Others were taken into custody after the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.

All are held under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which allows the police to use so-called confessions to charge and detain people for more than 18 months. The police force and its intelligence wing are notorious for extracting false confessions by torture.

The latest hunger strike was the fourth such prison protest in the last six months. In October 2015, over 220 detainees in 14 jails began an indefinite hunger strike over their ongoing imprisonment. The protests ended after the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of the Tamil bourgeois parties, convinced the hunger strikers to end their action, claiming the government was ready to release them.

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Responsibility for the current economic crisis

March 18, 2016

Politicians in government are generally profoundly economical with the facts. The Prime Minister is no exception. In a recent statement in Parliament he asserted that the current economic predicament faced in the country was attributable to economic mismanagement of the Rajapaksa regime notably the piling up of huge debts. Nothing could be further from the facts. The responsibility for the current economic crisis can be laid fairly and squarely on the Yahapalanaya Government.

The crisis is of the government’s own making for the following reasons. First, the government provided the fuel for a huge consumption boom. Government spending ballooned, inflated by substantial wage hikes to public servants, only partially offset on overall budgetary expenditure by reductions on government capital spending that inter alia slowed economic growth. Likewise, purchasing power of the public was boosted as petrol taxes and some other taxes were reduced. The impact on consumption was compounded by the reduction of interest rates. The Government encouraged unbridled lending by financial institutions to the private sector with no restrictions or incentives by sector. The result was that little extra lending was provided by financial institutions for broadening the productive capacity of the economy, and much lending was provided for imports, particularly of motor vehicles and consumption goods.

Secondly, tax revenue was reduced from what it would have been under the Rajapaksa Government to the tune of billions of rupees by reducing petroleum prices from the level set by the Rajapaksa Government. The effect of higher government spending and lower government revenue mentioned above was negative for the spiraling fiscal deficit.

Thirdly, the consumption boom had negative implications on the balance of trade. Notwithstanding the fall in the value of petroleum imports of some $1.8 billion, or more, total value of imports of Sri Lanka in 2015 barely fell. The huge windfall to the country from the decline in petroleum prices that could have been used to pay off the country`s foreign debt was thus frittered away to pay for soaring imports, notably of motor vehicles.

Budget deficits, interest rates, exchange rates are all connected. The consumption boom exerted pressure on the exchange rate. It was allowed to fall willy-nilly by some 8% in 2015. No one engaged in foreign exchange transactions was sure how much more it would be allowed to slide. Nothing is worse than uncertainty in foreign exchange markets. Foreign exchange amounting to billions of rupees was withdrawn by foreign investors from government financial institutions and sent abroad. Government`s foreign exchange reserves declined precipitously in 2015. Likewise, leads and lags in the trade sector because of uncertainty relating to the exchange rate depreciation worsened the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Moreover, the uncertain financial environment was inimical to inflows of FDI flows.

It is the substantial loss of foreign exchange reserves that sowed the seeds of an economic crisis in the making. The government has so far been staving off the crisis by borrowings, short, medium and long at rates more than that paid during the "bad old days" of the Rajapaksa government; begging the IMF to give a huge loan (figures of $3-4 billion are bandied about in city circles); and pleading with ADB, China, India, Japan and Korea to bring in foreign exchange and invest in big projects in Sri Lanka.

The Rajapaksa foreign and local debt would have been manageable, even if much higher than previously known, thanks to the windfall from the petrol price decline in 2015 and the financial flows from China, other Asian countries and institutions for projects. Even a much higher debt to GDP ratio than the 75% today would be sustainable when government economic policies have credibility in the market, rating agencies and foreign investors. Several countries such as Japan have much higher debt/GDP ratios. Japan, unlike Sri Lanka, is trying desperately to prevent not a devaluation but a revaluation of its currency.

To attribute the gathering economic and foreign exchange crisis to the debts incurred by the Rajapaksa government is just not credible. The facts prove otherwise. The gathering crisis flows directly from the profligacy of the incumbent government and awful economic management that has caused market uncertainty. It is foolish for the government now to harbour unimaginable fantasies that an IMF bailout would solve our economic problems as FDI would cascade into the country.

It is better for the government to learn from their mistakes in 2015, and to give priority to home-grown solutions that the public deems fair.

Atticus

To Register Or Not To Register

by Ashanthi Warunasuriya- Saturday, March 19, 2016

The government’s decision to call for the registration of news websites has caused a stir in the industry. The government claims that they were responding to requests for registration by news website owners themselves. The government recently published advertisements in newspapers informing the public and relevant stakeholders of this decision. Media organisations, media freedom activists and others have expressed concern that the government’s decision is an attempt to limit media freedom. Others, while agreeing with the principle of registration, have expressed other concerns.

Following are some of their views:

Registration fee should be reduced

Freddy Gamage, Convener, Professional Web Journalists Association

Even when the former government was in power, we said we were not against registering websites. We are only asking that we are entitled to all relevant privileges and rights. Our main request has been that the registration fee be reduced but it has not happened yet. If we are to receive the privileges that other journalists enjoy, we should get registered first. Our association is now preparing a code of ethics for web journalists. Only those who agree with it can obtain membership. With that procedure we will forward a system to have self-discipline in our reporting.

If we want to take web journalism to a professional level, we have to agree with the new proposal. The Deputy Minister clearly stated that they brought in the registration in order to provide official status for news websites. Today most of the news websites do not receive official news. They do not receive invitations to government press briefings. They do not get concessions that other journalists receive such as media ID cards, subsidies for motorbikes and so on. By registering, we should be entitled to receive these privileges and media journalistic rights.

Is news website registration a media repression?

Mar 19, 2016

The Sri Lanka Professional Journalists Association says news websites should not be registered. Its president Lasantha Ruhunage says the ‘Yahapaalana’ government too, was following the news website registration regulations introduced by the former Rajapaksa administration. He was speaking at the launch of a website for the Tamil Media Forum.

Websites that do not get registered as per government statements will be treated as unauthorized websites, he said, adding that such websites could face disruptions. The web media cannot be stifled.

Although Ruhunage says so, the previous regime blocked several news websites and intimidated, both officially and unofficially, the web media institutions and the persons in charge of them.

According to statements issued by the Media Ministry, news website registration is not mandatory. Websites will not be prevented from operating without registration.

Deputy minister of media Karunaratne Paranawithana says web media personnel too, should get the facilities given by the government and the Government Information Department and enjoyed by other journalists. A registration of the websites will facilitate that task, he points out.

The Politics Of Kishani Jayasinghe – Part II

By Izeth Hussain –March 19, 2016

Izeth Hussain

When the storm rages, and the ship of state is treatened with wreckage, we can do no better than to sink the anchor of our peaceful studies in the ground of eternity. – Johannes Kepler

Ah, what an age it is/ When to speak of trees is almost a crime/ For it is a kind of silence about injustice. – Bertold Brecht

As I have been arguing in earlier articles – citing the theories of Emmanuel Todd – the transition to modernity is hardly ever smooth, and it is frequently accompanied by violence. The undrlying reason is that in the procss of transition the old is displaced by the new, and that is something that is frequently resisted. Sri Lanka is in the throes of the modernization process. It is not surprising therefore that Kishani Jayasinghe‘s (KJ) operatic rendition of Dunno Budunge on the occasion of the National Day was seen as an intrusion of the alien and threatening Western into the realm of the national sacred. Modernity requires accelerated economic development which usually results in increased inequality, setting off envy and hatred among a substantial segment of the people. Perhaps it was not altogether surprising that that envy and hatred were deployed against KJ on an epic scale. What was really surprising was that the most vicious of the email attacks, according to what she wrote, came from females while the most suportive were from males.

But Nan in her Sunday Island column of March 13 wrote, “Two things I am convinced about. The three most hate-laden letters were NOT written by women but by frustrated, mentally abberated young men”. However the same issue of the Sunday Island carried a coruscating excoriation of the negative aspects of Sri Lanka womanhood by Devika Brendon. She wrote, “This incident highlights what many people know about contemporary Sri Lanka: that, despite its many positive aspects, it is a repressed, vindictive, and punitive culture. There are practical reasons for the existence of exorcism ceremonies and protection rituals, and invocation of charms against the Evil Eye”. What is the explanation for such starkly contrasting views of the same phenomenon: Sri Lankan womanhood? Devika Brendon’s article has the merit of calling attention to the need for in-depth studies of that subject, going beyond the worn stereotype that our womanhood is well emancipated because we produced the world’s first woman Prime Minister.

Crime and cost of living race for the moon; government leaders play politics

by Tassie Seneviratne

( March 20, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Crime and lawlessness on the one hand and cost of living on the other hand, are racing for the moon while government leaders are busy fiddling in political games while burning questions go unattended. Yahapalanaya promises of the Government are centered on containing crime and lowering the cost of living. But these two promises have been cast into the limbo of forgotten things and government leaders are hell bent trying to consolidate themselves with political power.

President Maithripala Sirisena who was voted into power with the people’s victory over the corrupt Rajapaksa regime in order to usher in good governance and free the country of crime, corruption and nepotism, is too busy consolidating his political power in methods not very scrupulous and there are no visible signs of ushering in the promised relief under good governance.

Much was expected from the Constitutional Council (CC) and the Independent Commissions. But what have they delivered? Has the CC nominated fit and proper persons to the National Independent Commissions or have square pegs been put in round holes.

May I illustrate the importance of selecting the right man for the job with a case- study: Over twelve years ago the mental hospital at Angoda was a hell hole. Complaints of attendants assaulting patients were galore. It was most unclean, with filth strewn all over the place, and teeming with flies. Miss. Celia Jayewardene, who has the experience of having worked in the Probation Department and is a retired teacher, is a frequent visitor to patients at the mental hospital. She has observed a tremendous change in this hospital: “No more complaints of assault, the attendants treat patients with love, and the attendants themselves look a contented lot as against the ruffian looks they bore earlier. The place is as clean as any clean Government hospital.” The trick? Earlier administrators were non-medical officers. During the past twelve years or so, it has been a medical officer who is a psychiatrist, Dr. Jayan Mendis, who is the administrator. His appointment was before the Constitutional Council and National Commissions came into being.

In comparison I would take the Police Force. The Police Force is one of the most important if not the most important segment in the criminal justice system. Take the National Police Commission (NPC) nominated by the CC. The Chairman of the NPC is yet to clarify who is responsible and accountable for the Police function, in spite of repeated enquiries about it. It appears that he is himself not sure about it. In the meanwhile the Secretary to the NPC makes howlers in the media not knowing the difference between a fact finding mission and an investigation under the Criminal Procedure Code. In the meanwhile a killing spree and gang warfare is going on regardless of the Police.

In the recent hit-and-run accident of a jeep on February 28 in Rajagiriya where two persons on a motor cycle were injured, and Minister Champika Ranawaka’s name was implicated raising a hue and cry, Senior DIG Pujitha Jayasundera answering a media question, was reported saying that investigations will be held against the Minister if a complaint is made . What a bloomer! Here is a hit-and-run accident where two persons are injured. A basic step in the investigation is to fix the identity of the person who drove the jeep at the time of the accident, be it a minister or anyone else. In this case the Minister’s name was implicated and someone else had owned up to be the driver. Why were these persons not shown to the witnesses, at an identification parade if need be, without affording time to the culprit to interfere in the investigation?

The order of the additional Magistrate Colombo on 9 March to record the statement of Minister Ranawaka, and to arrest suspects if any – without seeking court approval, is an indictment against the Senior DIG.

Among the powers of the NPC is disciplinary control. Should not the NPC serve charges against the Senior DIG for Neglect of Duty and Cowardice under the Police Disciplinary Code?

(The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police.)

The ‘Electricity power Mafia’ that spends Rs. 4 billion for a job that costs Rs. 4 million exposed..! Colombo power supply too in peril !!

(Lanka-e-News -19.March.2016, 9.00AM) An independent group of engineers of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has in a letter addressed to prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe given details of an electricity power mafia within the CEB. A copy of that letter has been sent to Lanka e news too.

Based on what this group had revealed, the resignation of the chairman of the Board after accepting responsibility for the recent power failure does not resolve the actual issue. As long as the internal mafia is continuing its operation which even the chairman is unable to control, this issue will not see an end.

Dear Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe,

When you speak to the ordinary people of the country, they blame to the government not to CEB officials for failing to supply reliable power. Now all will end up in the account of CEB Chairman as he accepted responsibility on recent failures and resigned by himself. Of course he didn’t make any failures by himself, but it is a fact that he was unable to manage and direct his CEB team to work on the duties they are supposed to perform. Due to his weak management CEB high rankers found more than enough time to spend on their personal business including MR regime return activities such as ECTA phobia innovated by Padeniya mafia.

We hereby take your time to explain few facts on some corruptions done by these senior officials during the recent past. To save your valuable time we take the liberty to present this in point form.

Mr. M C Wickramasekara (Wiki), General Manager, CEB

Wiki supposed to be the GM of CEB before previous Mr. Shavi Fernando.
But during the tenure of Mr. Patali Ranawaka at Ministry of Power and Energy, he voluntarily stepped back and gave the chance to Shavi.
Then during this period, Wiki as an AGM of CEB spent most of his time for visiting China and Korea (Including famous trips to Chinese girls arranged by Norochcholei Power Plant contractor).
He has made deals with bit of Chinese and Korean Power Sector firms both Equipment Manufacturers and Contractors.
He has asked one of his friend to form a firm to get local agencies on said firms and he is also an informal partner of this firm.
One such a contract was awarded to LSIS, Korea last year to build a 132/33 kV substation at Mannar.
LSIS has quoted a very low price surprising all, even with the domestic preference advantage Lanka Transformers price is also bit higher than them.
But contract award was delayed unusually.
Suddenly CEB Generation Planning division realized that Mannar is a wind base and there will be few wind plants to be constructed there.
CEB Generation Planning team commented that the wind plants shall be connected to the grid at 220 kV level, not at 132 kV level.
Then LSIS, Korea was asked to give a variation offer for 220 kV substation instead of 132 kV substation.
LSIS, Korea grabbed the opportunity and submitted a highly inflated offer covering the previous highly lowest offer losses as well.
From the top of the cup, this seems to be a genuine technical variation. But this was pre-planned among CEB GM, Ms. Kamani Jayasekara (Generation Planning Division) and LSIS, Korea.
Fortunately, this manipulation couldn’t be achieved yet, but still Wiki hasn’t stopped his attempt.
This CEB GM recently tried to form a new Additional General Manager position at CEB for Project Consultancy.
Generally, CEB doesn’t provide consultancy services. It is totally beyond their scope of duties.
But it was learnt that he has a firm connection with local consultancy firm who is willing to consult for CEB projects.
Fortunately, this manipulation also couldn’t be achieved due to the objections from other CEB Engineers.

Ms. Kamani Jayasekara, Deputy General Manager (Generation Planning Division), CEB

Now she is in this post more than 10 years. All know that she is not willing to give this post to any other. During the Rajapakshe Regime, she was strong and well connected with the regime, managed to secure her post without any hassle.
Current CEB Chairman too tried to transfer her but failed due to protests.
What she has done is, she made CEB generation planning for years and manipulated in accordance to the requirement of power sector so called mafia businessmen.
Since these mafias were working closely with Mr. Ferdinando, former secretary to Ministry of Power and Energy, Kamani and himself were also very good friends and enjoyed jointly the benefits from mafia leaders.

Mr. Anurudda Tilakarathne, Project Manager, CEB and Secretary of CEB Engineers Union

He was the project manager of Kilinochchi Grid Substation Project funded by JICA.
Being a JICA project and time of construction was at the just-war-end era, the project cost was marginally higher than the normal and it’s accepted.
But almost after years of completion he used the balance loan amount to get TWO NOS OF POWER TRANSFORMERS as spares from the same contractor at a higher price and used for some other sites.
If CEB goes for a competitive bidding to get two transformers separately, the price might be very low.
But he purposely got these two transformers at a high price, local agent of these transformers is a very good friend of him.
This is the first time in CEB history, someone got complete POWER TRANSFORMERS as SPARES.

Ms. Yamuna Samarasinghe and Mr. Chandana Samarasinghe, Additional General Managers, CEB
They are husband and wife.

And both are business partners of Wiki, CEB GM.
There is a long due cable fault on a power cable between two primary substations at Colombo City.
Yamuna and her favourites intentionally delayed the repair of this fault.
Recently Yamuna tried to call a tender to supply and lay separate cables to the either side primary substations of faulty cable section from all other primary substations in Colombo City.
If this cable repair has been done at correct time, cost might be around 4 Mill. LKR. Now the new proposal costs 4 Bill. LKR.
Wiki and Chandana tried to get this contract for their personal firm.
Still the Colombo City Power Network at a reliability risk due to this long dragged fault.

Independent Engineers of CEB

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by (2016-03-19 03:29:20)

GOTABHAYA AGREES THAT HIS RAKNA LANKA SECURITY FIRM WAS CORRUPT

19/03/2016

Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaks has accepted the fact that Rakna Lanka Security Firm under his authority used its employed for his brother Mahianda Rajapaksa’s election work in 2015. According to him former officers at the helm of the Rakna Lanka Security Firm were responsible for engaging company employees for election work during the last Presidential Election Campaign

He was giving evidence before the Presidential Commission Investigating Fraud Corruption Abuse of Power State Resources and Privileges on March 17 under questioning by High Court Judge Gihan Kulatunge on 18th March.

When Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that Rakna Lanka was not engaged in Bribery and Corruption, High Court Judge Kulatunge pointed out that there was evidence that Rakna Lanka employees had been engaged in the Presidential Election campaign and asked whether it did not amount to corruption. There upon Rajapaksa said high officials of the company should be held responsible for doing it.

With the inputs form Daily News

Favoured Son The Navy’s Shame?

Yoshitha Rajapaksa

by Nirmala Kannangara-Sunday, March 20, 2016

Following questions raised about Navy Lieutenant Yoshitha Kanishka Rajapaksa’s qualifications to enter the Sri Lanka Navy, it has now been revealed that Rajapaksa’s Ordinary Level and Advanced Level education certificates have gone missing from his personal file.

The questionable procedures adopted in recruiting Yoshitha Rajapaksa (NRX 2431) and selecting him for foreign training shows it is a clear deviation from the generally accepted Navy criteria. According to higher Naval officials, a proper judicial process has to be carried out to ascertain whether there had been any violation of fundamental rights of other officers who were deprived of foreign training because of Rajapaksa and the procedure adopted by the Navy.

Meanwhile, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, Navy Commander during the time Yoshitha Rajapaksa was enlisted, has come under fire for calling for applications for the post of Officer Cadets for the 45th intake from GCE A/L in Science, Arts and Commerce streams which is alleged to be a clear deviation from the general practice in Navy history.

“Officer Cadets for the executive branch are generally enlisted to the Navy from GCE A/L Science or Mathematics streams and relevant GCE O/L qualifications. So then, how did Admiral Karannagoda follow a completely different qualification criterion in 2006?” highly reliable Navy sources said on condition of anonymity.

According to the sources, the Navy is now silent on the subject of enlisting unqualified candidates to the Sri Lanka Navy as, for each enlistment, it is the Commander of the Navy that approves the qualification criteria to call applications.

March 19, 2016

Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa is coming under increasing pressure from the FCID, this time over the controversial multi-million dollar Krrish deal. Namal, who was summoned to the FCID on Thursday, was interrogated for several hours where he was accused of pocketing between Rs. 70 to 100 million from the deal.

Namal Rajapaksa

Speaking to reporters, Namal, the eldest son of former PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa said, “today they have found a new issue. First it was about a murder, then it was about money laundering, and now they are questioning me about a certain company that sponsored the Carlton rugby super sevens tournament,” he said.

He however did not explicitly mention the FCID grilled him over the Krrish deal. “They didn’t even know the exact amount; they asked if I had taken money, somewhere between 70 to 100 million. I told them I never did any such thing,” he added.

The US$ 650 million Krrish Tower project which was initiated during former President Rajapaksa’s period has been marred with controversy with allegations of secret payoffs to several VIPs in the country at that time.

Incidentally the drafting of the agreement was reportedly taken over by N R Associates, the legal firm owned by Namal Rajapaksa.

Before coming to power, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was very vociferous about the controversial project and the alleged corruption hovering over the project. At that time he also openly claimed that Namal Rajapaksa was to receive a commission from the deal. Wickremesinghe has however been very silent about the matter since coming to power.

By Norman Palihawadana-March 19, 2016

Acting on a tip-off, the Peliyagoda police recently arrested two soldiers attached to two army detachments close to Colombo for stealing weapons and selling them to criminals.

A underworld figure already in custody had revealed the soldiers’ involvement in the racket, police said.

He has told the interrogators that the two suspects sold T-56 assault rifles at Rs. 300,000 each but he did not know how many rifles they had sold to underworld elements.

Inefficiency of the government, Weerawansa outcry – Anti corruption front

Mar 19, 2016

Convener of the Anti Corruption Front Rev. Ulapane Sumangala convening a media briefing yesterday 18th said that Wimal Weerawansa vociferating is due to the inefficiency of the government, if not at this moment Weerawansa should be behind bars.

The reverend said that it was this Weerawansa who sold houses belong to the Housing Development Authority to his henchmen’s for bargain prices.

Rev. Sumangala said following the January 8th revolution the expectation of the public is to punish the thieves and fraudsters but despite giving all information’s and evidence regarding corruption, financial frauds and irregularities there is a severe delay in punishing the offenders.

Keerthi Tennakoon said Indian construction giant Krish started a hotel project opposite the Hilton Hotel Colombo in 2012 and the value of the project was US dollar 650 million.

Out of 650 million dollars, 450 million dollars has been credited to Namal Rajapaksa’s bank account in Singapore. The Urban Development Authority which signed agreement with Krish, told that UDA has to receive a balance of US dollar 450 but Krish has said that it has paid all the money.

This transaction got exposed due to the disclosure of the credit slip which Krish has credited the relevant money to a Bank account in Singapore owned by Namal. We can remember a group of people broke to Mandana Ismail house sometime ago and searched for Krish project transaction documents.

Finally Nalaka Godahewa pays another US dollar 400 million to Krish. Currently investigations are underway probing Nalaka Godahewa’s mobile sms messages about the relevant receipt.

It is clear that the repayment of US dollar 400 million is the commission paid to Krish.