{"id":93089,"date":"2019-09-18T23:32:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T05:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93089"},"modified":"2019-09-18T04:04:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T11:04:42","slug":"allegation-regarding-the-disappearance-of-rs-two-billion-in-the-construction-of-the-colombo-lotus-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/09\/18\/allegation-regarding-the-disappearance-of-rs-two-billion-in-the-construction-of-the-colombo-lotus-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegation regarding the disappearance of Rs. two billion in the construction of the Colombo Lotus Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong> Leader of the Opposition<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the\nColombo Lotus Tower, the President made a statement to the effect that back in 2012,\none of the Chinese contractors involved in the project – a company named ALIT –\nhad taken the advance payment of Rs two billion (Around 15\nmillion\nUSD at that time) made by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRC) and\ndisappeared. The President also stated that the government had sent the Sri\nLankan Ambassador in Beijing to the address given by ALIT and discovered that\nthere was no such company at that address. This allegation was flashed around\nthe world by international news agencies including Reuters and it became a major\nnews story in many Asian countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time that this payment was made\nin 2012,\nthe TRC which was in charge of this project was directly under me as the\nPresident. Therefore I wish to make a clarification regarding this matter. In 2012,\nthe total cost of the Lotus Tower project was estimated at 104.3\nmillion\nUS Dollars. The Exim Bank of China agreed to provide a loan facility of 88.6\nmillion\nUSD or up to 85%\nof\nthe total project cost. The remaining 15% of the cost had to be\nborne by the TRC. The contractors for projects financed by the Exim Bank of\nChina are nominated by the Chinese government. Accordingly, the China National\nElectronics Corporation and ALIT were nominated by the Chinese government. The\nLotus Tower was due to be completed by 2015,\nbut due to the yahapalana government causing delays in the project and due to\nlapses on the part of the contractor, it could not be completed according to\nschedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In projects of this nature the 15%\n\u2018local\ncomponent\u2019 has to be paid to the contractor upfront as an advance payment.\nDocuments confirm that on 9 October 2012,\nthe TRC had credited 15 million USD (Rs. two\nbillion) to the account of the main contractor China National Electronics\nCorporation. The latter company is still the main contractor of the project. The\nadvance payment of Rs. two billion was never paid to the other contractor ALIT.\nThe relevant documentation will show that from day one all payments had been\nmade to the account of China National Electronics Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two contractors recommended for the\nLotus Tower projects are 100% Chinese government\nowned conglomerates. The active party doing the contract was always the China\nNational Electronics Corporation and not ALIT. To say that a major Chinese\ngovernment owned conglomerate had disappeared with Rs. two billion belonging to\nthe Sri Lankan government, is a horrendous insult to China. This insulting\nstatement was moreover made in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador. We can\nunderstand why the government would want to sling mud at the political\nopposition on the eve of a decisive presidential election. But to publicly\ninsult a major world power that has always been friendly and helpful to Sri\nLanka, is unconscionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time the present yahapalana\ngovernment came into power, all they have done is to declare open the projects\nstarted by my government. The Colombo Lotus Tower is also one such project. The\nLotus Tower can generate enormous revenues for the government by providing\ntelephone, television and radio broadcasting services and also by attracting\nlocal and foreign tourists. But its cost has been less than a seventh of the\ncost for example of the privately owned Shangri La hotel project in Colombo.\nThe Lotus Tower is therefore, an excellent investment. This is also an edifice\nthat will symbolise Sri Lanka, much like the Eifel Tower in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unfounded allegation of a Rs. two\nbillion fraud in the construction of the Lotus Tower was made at its opening ceremony\nin order to prevent the credit for constructing such a national asset from\ngoing to the SLPP and the Joint Opposition. What we saw happening was no\ndifferent to throwing stones at a neighbour\u2019s new car out of sheer jealousy.\nFor more than five years we have heard a lot about golden horses, Lamborghinis\nand bank accounts with a balance of 18 billion USD, but this\nis the first time that anybody heard of a Chinese company that had disappeared\nwith Rs. two billion belonging to the TRC. In April 2019,\nthe Auditor General published a 670 page special report on\nthe Lotus Tower project, but it makes no mention at all of a Chinese contractor\nwho disappeared with Rs. two billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this indicates is the remarkable\nability that the yahapalana leaders have to concoct complete falsehoods in a\nmanner that suits the occasion. If this statement was made due to wrong\ninformation being conveyed, I expect the relevant individuals to move quickly\nto issue a correction. Since all documents pertaining to the Lotus Tower\nproject are available with the TRC and the Auditor General, ascertaining the\ntruth with regard to this matter is not a difficult task at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of the Opposition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Colombo Lotus Tower, the President made a statement to the effect that back in 2012, one of the Chinese contractors involved in the project – a company named ALIT – had taken the advance payment of Rs two billion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93089","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=93089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}