Dr Sarath Obeysekera  

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) has been mooting a Yacht Marina in Galle Harbour. A small Marina was built spending over 150 million Rupees and few Yachts sometimes patronize the harbour .If you have twitter or face book account or even  Websites of Yacht Enthusiasts ,you will read many adverse comments about the one-and -only yacht marina in Sri Lanka . Many small yacht owners who love Sri Lanka have been placing adverse comments about the behaviour of customs and SLPA security ,who wait like vultures to grab a something from anyone who goes thru customs gates of Galle. They complain that authorities keep a blind eye to the comments made by the Yacht owners.

With all these adverse publicity, SLPA has called offers worldwide for Marina Operators to expand the marina and develop a world-class Marina to augment the tourism- drive to convert whole of Galle as a tourist destination.

Several years have gone and finally the tender for Establishment of Marina was closed on 21^st August. Many foreign parties collected tender documents.

Before the opening of the tender ,a  chain of emails and letter has been sent  by a party called Seven Start Yachts Company ,accusing SLPA of drawing-up tender conditions for the Marina ,on the basis of an unsolicited proposal made by an another Company Called West Coast Marina ( WCM) .SLPA was implicated in the attached letter that the tender was tailor made for West Coast Marina Company. Letter was copied to Prime Minister and also all tender board members .

All tenderers except the accused” tenderer WCS have refrained from submitting proposals ,claiming that there has been a foul Play” .

Company which sent the letter  has never collected tender documents .

Further investigations have revealed that the signature of the Seven Start Yacht Company has been forged and the owner of the Company with the name of Chris has confirmed  that he never sent such a letter and intends to write to SLPA disowning the complain .

This is how scrupulous elements in Sri Lanka manipulates tender procedures and pushing the government officers to the edge .With such complains ,officers may even cancel the tender as there was only one bidder.

National Expert Strategy ( NES) advertised recently in Temple Trees with much publicity consist an element that Nautical Tourism need to be developed to generate 22 billion US $ by 2022.

If SLPA decides to cancel the tender, establishment of a long awaited marina will delay further and further and NES will become just another dream.

This is how Sri Lanka is progressing towards prosperity.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera