Hambantota port losses due to Govt. mismanagement: Namal

By Chamodi Gunawardana

Slamming the move to sign a Framework Agreement (FA) with China to lease the Hambantota port, MP Namal Rajapaksa alleged that the port became a loss making entity due to the current Government’s economic mismanagement.

The Hambantota port, which he claimed had made profits under the previous regime, has been rapidly losing profits due to the negligence of the Government.

“The port marked Rs. 5 billion in revenue in 2014 from vehicle handling, but this declined by Rs. 2.8 billion in 2015. Therefore the total revenue of 2015 was Rs. 2.1 billion. This indicates that the Yahapalana Government has been unable to handle a profit-making entity, while claiming to have economic experts in its ranks,” he charged.

Rajapaksa added that in 2014, the port had handled 198,000 vehicles, but this number had dropped to 157,000 vehicles in 2016.

“The Hambantota port used to handle vehicles that couldn’t be handled by the Colombo port. We built the port with the intention of increasing the vehicle handling capacity day by day, but it was disrupted by the Yahapalana Government,” he claimed.

Rajapaksa also charged that the port project which was labeled as a ‘white elephant’ by the present administration was evaluated at around $1 billion by the same Government when they wanted to sell it to China.

“If the Hambantota port was actually a white elephant, how did the Government valuate it to $1.1 billion? Would any Chinese company agree to buy an allegedly loss-making property if it is really making losses?” he asked.

Rajapaksa alleged that the 2000-hectare land belonging to the port has been leased to the Chinese company without conducting a valuation. He claimed the land was given along with its buildings “free of charge.”

The previous Government spent $450 million on the first phase of construction on the port, he said, adding that the monies spent on the second phase are yet to be calculated.   

He added if anyone has any doubts about the total expenditure of the port, they could summon him to the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) for clarification. Meanwhile, Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga earlier said he would urge President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to conduct an investigation on funds that had allegedly disappeared during the construction of the Hambantota port.

Issuing a statement Ranatunga said: “Rajapaksa has said that the total debt of Hambantota port is $ 400 million. Nevertheless according to our records we have a total debt of $ 1,347 million. Rajapaksa doesn’t know about a debt amount of $1000 million. I urge President and Prime minister to investigate about this $ 1000 million which has been disappeared.”