MR slams H’tota deal

• Alleges no transparency in process
• Claims Govt. has taken $ 13.7 b in loans but has achieved no development 
• Alleges more sales of assets in the pipeline  

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday slammed the Government’s decision to ink the deal on the Hambantota harbor as a futile endeavour to sell State assets under the guise of repaying debts.

He also denied claims his administration had plans to sell the port and insisted it could not be compared to any other sales of land made during his time including the Shangri-La project. 

“As public indignation mounts at the manner in which the Hambantota port was privatised, yahapalana ministers are now going around saying that my government too had planned to sell the entire Hambantota port to the Chinese. This is a diabolical lie. Everyone knows that my government had an explicit anti-privatisation policy,” Rajapaksa said in a two-page statement.

“In just two and a half years, the yahapalana government has taken foreign currency loans amounting to over $ 13.7 billion. All this money has been spent on consumption. $ 13.7 billion is the equivalent of ten Norochcholai power plants or ten Hambantota Ports, or more than twenty Southern Highways. But the government has nothing to show for all this money that has been borrowed and spent.”

The high borrowings were necessary after the Government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe raised salaries of public employees and slashed the prices of essential goods shortly after taking office, the statement claimed. It also went on to question the transparency of the deal and insisted Parliament was not allowed to debate the agreement even though proceedings were disrupted by the Joint Opposition that led to the House being adjourned.  

“Parliament was not allowed to debate the Agreement to privatise one of Sri Lanka’s most important strategic assets. No one knows who did the valuation of this asset. No one appears to have seen any technical/financial evaluation report. The government has also not explained to the public on what criteria they selected the company that won the bid when there was clear evidence that the other bid was much more favourable.” 

He also alleged other assets, including the Colombo-Katunayake Highway, Southern Highway, Water Board and Electricity Board, were due to be privatised.