Coal Controversy: USD 3mn loss in public funds?
Posted on August 24th, 2016
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The issue came to light last year after the Daily Mirror broke the story regarding the circumventing of procedure and process in awarding a sport tender to the same company. Thereafter legal action was filed in the Supreme Court, which observed a blatant violation of the process when awarding the tender.
The decision comes despite the Power and Energy Ministry was said to have been taken aback” last week when the spot tender they called for coal had the lowest price for this commodity at USD 64.77 per metric tonne. However, it was reported on Monday (22), according to Ministry Secretary Dr. B.M.S Batagoda, that the Power and Energy Ministry would continue to contract with Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises Pte Limited for the supply of coal. The reason given for this has been that their contract price was USD 7 less than what was quoted in a recent spot tender at USD 58 per metric tonne.
However, the Daily Mirror learns that in order to arrive at the complete price which has to be paid to Swiss Singapore the calculations have to be made according to an API 4 Index. This figure does not seem to have been taken into account in classifying Swiss Singapore as the best option because had it been accounted for, the calculations would have shown that the long term tender with this company would have resulted in USD 9.17 more per metric tonne than what would have been spent using the spot tender method.
This in turn translates into an excessive spending of USD 3,026,100 for the required 330,000 metric tonnes of coal in September.
The figures given by the Power and Energy Ministry has also been questioned publicly by Wasantha Samarasinghe of the Voice Against Corruption Movement.
Furthermore the continuation to contract with Swiss Singapore flies in the face of the concerns that were raised by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka after this controversy that has racked the local coal industry was brought to light by fundamental rights petitions that were filed by two other coal suppliers.
K. Sripavan, C.J, in his judgement on the case said I have no alternative but to declare the decision of the SCAPC (Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee) to award the tender to the 22nd Respondent (Swiss Singapore) cannot stand valid in the eye of the law.” In its judgment the Chief Justice also observed that some events which took place in the award of the coal tender to Swiss Singapore Overseas Enterprises Pte Ltd shocks the conscience of the Court”
The applications were dismissed however due to preliminary objections that were raised. (Rashmin Tirimanne De Silva)
– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/114624/Coal-Controversy-USD-mn-loss-in-public-funds-#sthash.UfX5Obo1.dpuf
August 27th, 2016 at 2:51 am
Apart from highly commending those who are taking legal action against the treacherous CBK (Chaura Rejina) regarding the defamatory and utter lies she keeps repeating to defame her rivals, legal action should be taken against her for stating that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial Councils within the new constitution. Does this evil woman CBK think she owns Sri Lanka and that she is the one who is going to draw up the new constitution of Sri Lanka (according to the wishes of the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists)? The constitution of Sri Lanka should satisfy first and foremost the majority of people of this island i.e. the Sinhala people and the Sinhala people firstly do not want to draw up a new constitution nor do they want any more powers whatsoever be provided to the provincial councils.
Someone has to go to the supreme court and take action against treacherous CBK for suggesting that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial councils within the yet to be drawn up constitution since this means the treacherous Ranil, Sirisena, CBK and Mangala have already drawn up a constitution to satisfy the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists which is illegal.
Beyond this, this yahapalanaya government, CBK, Sirisena, the JVP, the JHU, Sarath Fonseka and the like are extremely corrupt and are enjoying perks. Rajitha using nine large industrial scale fishing trawlers has made large amounts of money while he was fisheries minister when he should have been improving the state fisheries cooperation not making large amounts of money for himself. P. Harrison has taken a 800 lakhs bribe in a deal selling at a very low price excess rice as chicken feed to India. Yahapalanaya government, CBK, Sirisena, the JVP, the JHU, Sarath Fonseka and the like are extremely corrupt and are enjoying perks such as Pajeros, official vehicles, official residences, Rs.200 lakhs loans, doing deals such as renting buildings for example to house the agricultural ministry at very high rents, two bond scams, paying supporters very high salaries and hiring them as ‘consultants’ who are not really consultants such as at the RDA, the rice mafia of Sirisena brother making massive amounts of money at the expense of poor rice farmers, the coal deals of Champika making yet more massive amounts of money, karunka and copper being imported by UNP ministers without paying any taxes, Pajeros and other vehicles being imported by Ranil and Sirisena without paying any taxes in order to bribe MPs, all these corrupt deals are being done and the country is being betrayed in this way by collecting the required two thirds majority in parliament to ensure that treacherous acts such as the missing persons act are approved by parliament.
All the while valuable infrastructure that should be marketed all over the world such as the Mattala Airport was used for storing rice rather than enticing airlines all over the world to use this airport or at least divert half the airplanes which use Katunayake to Mattala, especially tourist planes.