{"id":46424,"date":"2015-08-02T15:02:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T21:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46424"},"modified":"2015-08-02T04:18:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-02T11:18:12","slug":"ranils-dishonesty-gets-worse-by-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/02\/ranils-dishonesty-gets-worse-by-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil\u2019s dishonesty gets worse by the day"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Ranil\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s manifesto, namely that on page 11. There it was asserted that <strong>\u2018Earlier 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 \u2013 Kerawalapitiya highway, the amount pilfered is Rs. 5.2 billion.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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, \u2018to do the first section from Kadawata to Meerigama\u2019 on what is now termed the Central Expressway.<\/p>\n<p>This was proposed to Cabinet through a memo dated July 6<sup>th<\/sup>. Then, two weeks later, on the 20<sup>th<\/sup>, 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 16<sup>th<\/sup>. The composition of the Committee \u2013 which does not seem properly constituted \u2013 was reported to the Cabinet (for information \/ sanction) through a memorandum dated July 21<sup>st<\/sup>, but it had by then already made its recommendtions.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>This cynical cultivation of the only company criticized in the President\u2019s manifesto follows the Prime Minister\u2019s protection of Arjuna Mahendran contrary to the President\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Ranil\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prof-rajiva-wijesinha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}