Businessman remanded for alleged corruption in supplying toilets

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

An owner of a private construction company, who had allegedly involved in misappropriating public funds while constructing 230 temporary toilets at the ‘Deyata Kirula’ site, was ordered to be remanded till 23 April by a Colombo Court yesterday.

The CID alleged that a contract relating to the construction of temporary toilets had been given to the owner of the construction company without the approval of the Procurement and Technical Evaluation Committee (PTEC) by ‘Deyata Kirula’ National Exhibition 2013 CEO Kanthi Gunawardana.

The suspect, M.M. Sarath Chandra Ekanayake had received money from this unlawful transaction, and thereby he had committed an offence which comes under Public Property Act, the CID alleged.

Meanwhile, the CID further charged that they were able to recover an amount of Rs. 500,000 from the suspect’s possession, which was believed to have been gained from this unlawful transaction. When the suspect was produced before Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya, the Magistrate ordered CID that the recovered money be deposited under the Court custody.

Filing a B report in Court on 27 March, the CID informed the Court that they have begun investigation against the ‘Deyata Kirula’ National Exhibition 2013 Secretarial Office CEO, for allegedly cheating and misappropriating Rs. 39 million by not following the proper tender procedure.

The CID further told Court that a complaint had been made in this regard by Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry Secretary H.M. Gunasekara on 21 February regarding the alleged misappropriation valued at Rs. 39 million.

In this case, the complainant alleged that the contract relating to the construction of temporary toilets had been given to a private company without the approval of the PTEC by the CEO of the Deyata Kirula Exhibition 2013, and thereby made an additional payment of Rs. 1.7 million to the contractor.

He further alleged that the suspect had made another payment amounting to Rs. 12 million for the construction of a reading room at the exhibition premises, followed by approving another of Rs. 11 million for a contractor to construct a canteen and a further payment of Rs. 255,000 for flower decorations at the site.

However, Gunawardana had already filed an anticipatory bail application in Court to pre-empt the possibility of her arrest over charges levelled by the CID. The anticipatory bail application is to be considered on 22 April.