RTI Commission orders release of Port City Tripartite agreement

Friday, 7 April 2023 00:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Following a lengthy hearing process, the Right to Information Commission yesterday ordered the Ministry of Investment Promotion to release the tripartite agreement on the Colombo Port City Development Project.

The agreement signed in 2017 was between the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, the Urban Development Authority, and the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Port City Colombo Ltd.

The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) in 2018 had requested a copy of the agreement from the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development but was denied on the basis of the presence of confidential clauses. An appeal filed by the CEJ was accepted by the commission leading to a hearing lasting four years, the longest in the history of the Commission.

Delivering the final order, Commissioner Kishali Pinto Jayawardena said that the Ministry of Investment Promotion was unable to establish which clauses should be kept confidential and the tripartite agreement signed in 2014 for the Colombo Port City development is in the public domain through the judiciary process.

Therefore, the commission stated they do not recognise the necessity to keep the document out of the public domain. Though the public authority had provided parts of the agreement to the appellants in 2021, the CEJ later requested the full agreement through the appeal process for which the order was delivered in their favour yesterday.