Ranil’s dishonesty gets worse by the day
Posted on August 2nd, 2015

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Ranil’s dishonesty gets worse by the day. But even more startling perhaps is his brazen hypocrisy. And what seems to be open mockery of the President.

There have been multiple allegations of corruption with regard to the last government, but most were generalizations. There was in fact only one clear instance cited in the President’s manifesto, namely that on page 11. There it was asserted that ‘Earlier people spoke about ten percent commissions. Now the talk is about ninety percent ransoms. Now, if Rs 100,000 is spent on the construction of a culvert the amount pilfered is Rs 900, 000. If a total of Rs. 7.3 billion is spent per kilometre on the construction of the Kadawata – Kerawalapitiya highway, the amount pilfered is Rs. 5.2 billion.’

The reference was to the contract signed with the China Metallurgical Corporation. This company, supposed to have been the source of 90% commissions under the last government, is now flavor of the month as far as Ranil Wickremesinghe is concerned.

Earlier there were grandiose claims that Rs 30 billion had been saved on the cost of the Outer Circular Highway. In fact what happened was that the road was downsized. Then, what were reported as savings were given back to the same contractor. This was for a new contract, awarded without going through tender procedures, ‘to do the first section from Kadawata to Meerigama’ on what is now termed the Central Expressway.

This was proposed to Cabinet through a memo dated July 6th. Then, two weeks later, on the 20th, the Prime Minister prepared a memo seeking Cabinet approval for rates recommended by a Committee that his office has asked the Ministry of Highways to appoint on July 16th. The composition of the Committee – which does not seem properly constituted – was reported to the Cabinet (for information / sanction) through a memorandum dated July 21st, but it had by then already made its recommendtions.

The unit costs it recommended are higher than those the same company had proposed for the contract for another section of the Central Expressway some months earlier. The increase might be due to inflation, but since the earlier claim of the current government was that its figures were high because of excessive commissions, it seems clear that the Prime Minister no longer believes, or even pretends to believe, his previous wild allegations.

This cynical cultivation of the only company criticized in the President’s manifesto follows the Prime Minister’s protection of Arjuna Mahendran contrary to the President’s advice. All this indicates that President Sirisena will find it difficult to preserve his reputation for honesty if he has a government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe for much longer.

4 Responses to “Ranil’s dishonesty gets worse by the day”

  1. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    Traitor chief’s newest pachaya:
    make Sri Lanka a nation of exporters!

    He explained. It is very simple really!
    Give a lot of porters jobs to youth in hospitals, hotels etc.
    After a few months, you sack them all. Just like his uncle alugosu jr did by sacking 40,000 state workers.
    Then you have a lot of ex-porters!
    With a few months you’ve become a nation of ex-porters!
    See politics is an easy game for this murderous, tom pachaya!

  2. Lanka Citizens Says:

    http://tprism.blogspot.com/2015/08/august-17th-2015.html

  3. Fran Diaz Says:

    We cannot forget that Pres Sirisena appointed Ranil W., saying ‘the west wanted it so’. Everyone knew/knows that Ranil is the blind, blue eyed boy for the west.
    Ranil appointed Arjun Mahendran (Tamil Singaporean, Brit blind, blue eyed boy) as Governor, Central Bank. : result, scam, setting the country finances into a tail spin.

    So, who is running the country, huh ?

  4. charithsls Says:

    Do not forget you’ve a great responsibility to take these to the social media & to NGO machine. The victory MS gained in January,we most know was due to their wide publicity campaign & MR came a cropper there then. Do not repeat the same mistake again. You are in a very enviable position as an elite figure who can take a lead role for MR with other stalwarts like Nalin,Sarath & Dayan etc in the English medium where MR has less success. And don’t forget, your role is much more important to take a good slice of Christian voters who are always against MR due to mistaken priorities.

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