SLPP tries to mislead the public by distorting MCC Compact

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement is currently a topic of contention in the public domain.

Misinformation is widespread, and many valid concerns about the agreement have gone with the wind as a result of unfounded allegations leveled by SLPP leaders including opposition leader Mahinda Rajapksa and the likes of Wimal Werawansa and Udaya Gammanpila.

Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapksa who has embraced US citizenship a couple of decades ago and whose wife and son are still enjoying US citizenship has stooped to such a low level by allowing his stooges to gain political mileage by distorting true facts with regard to the MCC grant.

Issuing a statement, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweeera has challenged Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to reveal any facts relating to the MCC Compact that are deemed as detrimental to the country or people without misleading the public.

He claimed that the attempt to create an anti American terror by blowing up false facts on the MCC grant that are being made by bankrupt politicians who are hell bent on making an American Citizen as the president of this country was hilarious.

Minister Samaraweera disclosed that MCC Compact grant of US$ 480 million had been initiated in 2002 when he was the Foreign Minister during the Rajapaksa regime on the instructions of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In 2005, the  Rajapaksa regime had made a valiant attempt to obtain this MCC grant, he said adding that it was failed due to corruption and fraud allegations and charges of human rights violations leveled against the previous government.

Sri Lanka still has a chance of gaining the largest ever grant Sri Lanka has received to improve transport infrastructure and streamline land administration as the board of directors of MCC referred their final decision to their December meeting.

The board will meet again in December for its annual selection process and will take a final decision on the MCC grant which was requested by the government way back in 2016.

The Cabinet approval for the MCC compact was granted this week and the relevant Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement will be presented and enacted in Parliament of Sri Lanka once it is signed.

Finance Ministry announced that before its entry into force, it will be published in the Government Gazette before being submitted to the Parliament.