The Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (COPF) has recommended taking action against officials who oversaw the 2022-2025 coal tender for the Norochcholai coal power plant.

“I tabled in Parliament Auditor General report on the now cancelled $ 1.5 billion coal procurement. “Auditor General determined tender board violated approved procurement guidelines. COPF recommended all members of the tender board be barred from sitting on tenders for a minimum of 12 months,” COPF Chairman and Opposition MP Dr. Harsha de Silva tweeted yesterday.

As per a request made by Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera last month, COPF agreed to conduct an investigation into the allegations levelled against the awarded coal tender which led to questions of transparency and pricing.

Later Minister Wijesekera taking to Twitter thanked COPF Chief Dr. de Silva for conducting an investigation and for the recommendations.

He said the COPF in its report on the investigation into coal procurement has said that Auditor General’s preliminarily observes cites that a fair and sufficient timeline was not accommodated to suitable bidders. Thereby, it has deviated from the procurement guidelines.

“Officials of the procurement committee have been notified of the observations, and recommendations and will respond accordingly,” Wijesekera added. 

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