Ranil makes ‘personal explanation’ in Parliament on Port City

Friday, 7 March 2014 07:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent Despite rejections and dismissing access to documents, Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday in Parliament made a personal explanation highlighting the seriousness of the Colombo Port City and the China Communications Construction Company Ltd. fraud accusations. “Public will continue to believe the fraud charges unless the Government tables the documents in Parliament,” warned Wickremesinghe. Making a comparison between the six plans – 1921 Patrick Geddes Plan, 1948 Patrick Abercrombie Plan, 1978 UNDP Colombo Master Plan Project, 1985 City of Colombo Development Plan, 1998 Colombo Metropolitan Regional Structure Plan, and finally 2004 Western Region Megapolis Plan drawn to develop City of Colombo during the last 90 years – he said: “Most information is in the 1998 plan with 2,200 pages complied into 12 volumes. The 9th volume has studied the commercial district and the 10th volume talks about city dwellers. Based on this 1998 report, Cesma International Ltd. produced the Western region Megapolis Plan in 2004. It contains three volumes and 212 pages. Both these key reports have identified vast land area for prospective development. But the CCCC proposal lacks such in-depth plans. Cesma International Ltd. has also suggested extending the Colombo Fort area by reclaiming the sea.” Guiding the Government through the steps it should have followed, Wickremesinghe said: “Firstly, the Cesma International Ltd. report should have been studied. You could have called for tenders if only satisfied with that report. But your Cabinet paper claims to have based the Colombo Port City project on the Cesma International Ltd. report. But there is a serious disparity between your report and the Cesma International Ltd. report. Unsolicited bids are considered at special occasions by deviating from the tender procedures introduced in 1998, but before all that the Ports Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CCCC; a clear violation of procedures. According to the proper system, a Cabinet appointed committee needs to do a valuation accompanied with the 1998-2004 reports. But your Cabinet paper doesn’t mention such a valuation and mentions that the unsolicited proposal is initiated by CCCC.” “There are similar business establishments in Netherlands and Japan much senior compared to CCCC. But your Cabinet paper has no mention about obtaining proposals from them. There is no mention about the attempts made to obtain international credit facilities on soft terms for the past 25 years. The Cabinet Paper has failed to explain the proposal to bridge the technical knowhow. Government first said that 20 hectares will be given to CCCC in settlement of reclaiming sea. But the Cabinet Paper states giving out 108 hectares out of the 233 hectares reclaimed. CCCC has no credibility and has clearly violated the World Bank regulations. As a result CCCC was banned by the World Bank and has turned down the appeals,” said the Opposition Leader.

Honorary titles for a price, says Harsha

Gone are the days that a Sri Lankan could decently receive honorary titles such as Deshamanya, Deshabandu, Lankaputhra, Kalanidhi and Sri Lanka Jana Ranjana without influence or a financial consideration becoming the deciding factor, according to MP Dr. Harsha de Silva who has received a letter from an awarding body seeking Rs. 10,000 if to be conferred with a title. Exposing what he described as a scam, MP Dr. de Silva said: “I received a letter on 7 October last year from the All Ceylon Nena Guna Foundation, informing of an opportunity to get conferred with any of the honorary titles such as Deshamanya, Deshabandu, Lankaputhra, Kalanidhi and Sri Lanka Jana Ranjana. In return they have asked for a payment. Some other members in this house have also received similar letters. This organisation claims to have shortlisted 100 personalities to receive such titles for 2013.” “The President confers the titles Deshamanya and Deshabandu on par with the formalities given in a Gazette notification, which came out in 1986. Titles such as Lankaputhra, Kalanidhi and Sri Lanka Jana Ranjana are not within the scope of any institution to confer. We will investigate into this matter since you have identified it as a fraud. You have obtained your doctorate having studied for it. But we don’t recognise any other individual who obtained doctorates differently and identify themselves as doctors,” said Minister of Water Supply and Drainage and Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena. Exposing bogus qualifications and titles used inside the Parliament on official documents, MP Ajith Perera said: “The official documents of this Parliament contain certain qualifications and titles identifying members. But some of these qualifications and titles are not given by recognised universities. Better refine the Parliament documents and strike off such false qualifications and honorary titles.” (AH)