News

Troops of the 12 Gajaba Regiment and 4 Sri Lanka Light Infantry of the 14 Division under the Security Force Headquarters - West (SFHQ-West) during small hours on Sunday (7) rushed to the Parliament complex area and took necessary steps to prevent the entrance areas from getting inundated with rainwater which has risen to flood levels. 

After being informed, Major General Sathyapriya Liyanage, Commander, Security Forces - West directed 14 Division troops to attend to the emergency situation developing around the Parliament complex due to prevailing torrential rains. Accordingly, 63 Army personnel laid sandbags along the sideways of the road that leads to the entrance across the Diyawanna Oya to prevent the premises from inundation around 3.00 am on Sunday (7). 

Troops managed to prevent water from flooding the road in question and took other measures to avoid further seeping of rainwater. 

Meanwhile, 8 Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (SLSR) troops of the 58 Division under the SFHQ-West on Friday (5) took steps to remove a huge tree that has fallen on to the Colombo - Kandy road near 61st milepost in Kadugannawa. Twenty-seven 8 SLSR troops were able to clear the road for traffic by removing the fallen tree within a matter of few hours.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is on an official visit to Norway, met with the business community in Oslo on Wednesday. 

At a meeting organized by the Sri Lankan and Norwegian business leaders engaged in trade between the two countries, the Prime Minister elaborated on ways and means of enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries. The Norwegian business community drew Wickremesinghe's attention to problems that are encountered by them with regard to trade practices. The Prime Minister while taking note of these issues, also discussed possible solutions that can be taken promptly to resolve those issues.

The Premier noted that Sri Lanka will actively seek to strengthen the relationship between the two countries as the government continues to build on its plansrelationships and grow trade and investment.

Wickremesinghe also visited XXL’s robotic warehousing facility run by Element Logic and TIQRI. The automated warehouse uses robots to store, package and ship goods to XXL stores and online shoppers. Here, the Premier is received on arrival by senior management of the companies. 

The robotics functions are run by the high technology company for warehouse solutions Element Logics and the software engineering firm Tiqri.

The automated operation allows quick and efficient storage as well as repacking and reshipping.The company explained that garments, other products as well as fish, vegetables and fruits could be stored and packaged.

"We have already drawn up preliminary plans for the establishment of such stores for the development of the fisheries sector," Minister of Fisheries Vijith Wijayamuni Soysa said.

Addressing widespread rumours and uproar regarding the refusal of the Department of Archaeology to renew the excavation permit granted to prominent Archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva, head of the Department Prof. Prishantha Mandawala says the decision was made as Somadeva along with 14 other researchers had not submitted the research reports and lists of artefacts found as required. “He merely handed over a document with newspaper articles regarding his recent work,” Mandawala said stating that instead, the Department requires researchers with permits to hand over extensive research reports about the work carried out. 

Mandawala also denied claims that Somadeva was singled out and the decision has any political aspect to it. “He is not the only researcher who was denied a permit,” Mandawala said adding that the Department decided to take a tough stance as its repeated requests for detailed research reports went unheeded. 

However, he also assured the ongoing excavations at the recently discovered Mass grave in Mannar by Somadeva will not be affected. “He does not need the Department’s permit to carry out work there,” Mandawala said. But supporters of Somadeva have been trying to portray the incident as an attempt to stop Somadeva’s work and hide certain aspects of the country’s history. Among others who have been denied permits are Prishantha Gunawardena, Jagath Weerasinghe, Gamini Adhikari, Sumanasiri Wawwage, Anura Manatunga, Arya Lagamuwa and several others.

Minister of Finance and Media, Mangala Samaraweera is now receiving proposals from the public to be included in his 2019 Budget speech titled 'A Strong Economy and An Enriched Country'. 

Samaraweera will present the 2019 budget to parliament on November 05, 2018.

The Ministry of Finance announced that the general public, including professionals, scholars, individuals/companies engaged in production, services, and agriculture sectors are also able to submit their proposals for the upcoming budget.

The Ministry of Finance and Mass Media requests the public to send their proposals to the following address or via e-mail on or before October 12, 2018.

Proposals can be addressed to;
Director General,
Commerce and Investment Policy Department,
Ministry of Finance and Mass Media,
The Secretariat,
Colombo 01.


E-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sri Lanka’s flagship carrier, SriLankan Airlines (SLA) had fully outsourced its call centre operations in 2009 to HelloCorp, despite the controversial entity submitting a higher bid for the contract, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into irregularities at SriLankan Airlines learnt last week.

HelloCorp, initially set up as a subsidiary of Expolanka Holdings PLC in 2002 was first acquired by NR Consultancy (Pvt) Ltd in 2012 and its shareholding was transferred to Gowers Corporate Services (GCS) a year later. Both NR Consultancy and Gower Corporate Services are fully owned entities of Namal Rajapaksa, the son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Namal Rajapaksa is currently on trial at Colombo High Court on charges of allegedly acquiring the HelloCorp call centre using laundered money through GCS and NR Consultancy (Pvt) Ltd.

At the time of the takeover of HelloCorp by GCS, SriLankan Airlines was headed by Nishantha Wickremasinghe, brother of former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa’s maternal uncle. The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm also then had an existing business agreement for coordinating services with SLA.

Testifying before the commission, witness SLA General Manager of Commercial Services and Support Services, Panduka Weeraratne said that while HelloCorp and SciCom, were selected as the finalists to run call centre operations for SLA, HelloCorp was finally awarded the three-year agreement despite offering a higher bid. While SciCom quoted Rs. 445 million, HelloCorp’s offer was Rs.28 million higher at Rs. 473 million.

A subsequent Board Paper submitted through the Head of Finance to the SLA Board had stressed the importance of an outsourced call centre (with four SLA staff and 126 outsourced contract staff) and highlighted that the outsourced operation would reduce staff by 50% and bring in Rs 77 million cost savings.

However, witness Weeraratne failed to produce any documentary evidence as to how such conclusions were arrived at prior to submitting the Board Paper or any later evaluations done. He further said that a 10-member team appointed in awarding this contract to an outsourced company of which he was a member, developed a Request For Proposal (RFP) and received responses from 10 vendors of which five companies were shortlisted following a marking scheme based on various factors.

According to investigations reported to court before the case went to trial, the ownership of HelloCorp was acquired through laundered money, using a trove of false invoices and documents to prove that NR Consultancy had sufficient avenues of income. Accordingly, Namal Rajapaksa had taken over HelloCorp through GCS by using his two close female associates as proxies.

In 2013 — during the period the HelloCorp transaction took place — the directors of GCS were Ornella Iresha Silva, a former Private Secretary to Namal Rajapaksa and Nithya Senani Samaranayake, the controversial air hostess attached to SriLankan Airlines, who was released to work in a ‘mysterious role’ at the Presidential Secretariat at an exorbitant salary. Samarasinghe is currently a member of the Colombo Municipal Council, elected on the SLPP ticket.

Directors and key executive staff of NR Consultancy were Lakshman Namal Rajapaksa (Holder of all shares), Nithya Samaranayake (Director), Ornella Iresha Silva (Legal Officer), Sudarshan Ganegoda (Director), Sujani Bogollagama (Chief Executive Officer), Dilrukshi Mahanama (Accountant) and Vasitha Pinnawala (Project Officer). The five-member PCoI consisted of Retired Supreme Court Justice Anil Gooneratne (Chairman), Court of Appeal Judge Gamini Rohan Amarasekara, Retired High Court Judge Piyasena Ranasinghe, Retired Deputy Auditor General Anthony Harold and Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board Director General Wasantha Jayaseeli Kapugama.

A raft of policy measures recently introduced by the Sri Lankan government is expected to ease the excessive demand for foreign currency and reduce the pressure in the domestic foreign exchange market.    

The Sri Lankan rupee depreciated at a faster pace of 9.7 per cent against the US dollar during the year up to 01 October 2018 . The country currently possess USD 7.5 billion in foreign reserves and expects to close this year with around USD 8.3 billion. 

Speaking at a media conference, Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said that they are in a better position now than in the past years. The Central Bank has intervened with USD 184 million in forex markets to defend the rupee so far this year. Coomaraswamy said that USD 84 million had been bought on Monday while noting that the foreign currency outflows stood at USD 487 million. 

Central Bank total purchases of foreign exchange stood at USD 551 million while total sales amounted to USD 731 million during the year. The substantial surge in import expenditure was driven by the growth in imports of fuel, gold and personal motor vehicles. 

Even though services related inflows such as tourism performed notably and the financial account of the Balance of Payments (BOP) strengthened during the year, outflows of foreign investment from the government securities market exerted pressure on the Balance of Payments (BOP).

Refuting allegations made by the ‘Sunday Times’ Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Russia, Prof. Dayan Jayatilleka claims the news was inaccurate and false.

“The headline of the newspaper story ‘Defense Attache’ recalled from Moscow after Dayan's Protest’ is false he said adding that he made no such "protest" and neither did he make an “official complaint" against the attache.

The Ambassador also denied sending a report to the Foreign Ministry as claimed by the newspaper. 

I have made no official complaint about any staffer and have sent nothing in writing to either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Defense on any staffer or matter” Jayatilleke clarified. 

However, the Ambassador did admit that he made certain critical observations in good humour, in agreement with the Defence Attache’s superior at an informal dinner claiming these have been taken out of context and embellished or spun. “The newspaper should have checked the story with me, which it did not” he added. 
 
The Sunday Times in its report claimed Air Force Group Captain Channa Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s Defence Attache in Moscow, has been recalled to Colombo and instructions had gone out last week after an official complaint by Sri Lanka new Ambassador in Moscow Dayan Jayatilleka.

It went on to say that the ambassador had said the Air Force officer had allegedly “partitioned” the Embassy premises calling it the “Defence Section” leaving other areas in the diplomatic mission outside it. 

“Dr. Jayatilleke contended that he could not be the head of only one part of the Sri Lanka Embassy. He also alleged that the Defence Attache had imported a vehicle for his use in Moscow and it cost US$ 80,000” the report said. It also claimed Air Marshal Jayampathi was first told of the actions of the Defence Attache by Ambassador Jayatilleke when he visited Moscow recently and was recalled thereafter.

Chief of Staff (CoS) of Sri Lanka Army Major General Dampath Fernando’s term of office has been extended by three months with effect from today by President Maithripala Sirisena,  Army Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said today.

He was scheduled to retire the day before yesterday and a farewell guard of honour was also held in his honour at the Kuruwita Gemunu Watch Headquarters. “Major General Fernando was given a guard of honour because they were unaware of his extension before giving the guard of honour,” he said.

According to security forces sources, the Army Commander had recommended six senior officers to fill the post of Chief of Staff of the Army and sent this list to the President.

However, under such a situation, it is unique that the President upon arriving from New York had taken the decision to extend Maj. Gen. Fernando’s term.

Maj. General Dampath Fernando was appointed as the 52nd Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army on March 27. He had joined the Army as a Cadet Officer of the Gemunu Watch on April 27, 1983.

The SLFP will not support the 20th amendment to the constitution that aims to abolish the executive presidency, a powerful minister from the party had claimed to the weekly Sinhalese newspaper ‘Anidda’. 

A committee appointed by the SLFP central committee to consider the amendment will say that the party is opposed to a full curtailment of the presidential powers, says the minister. Leaders of the party are in agreement with that, according to him.

The party has maintained its opposition to the abolition of the executive presidency, even when it submitted proposals to the steering committee of the constitutional assembly, the minister notes.

The SLFP wants the executive presidency to continue if there is no change to the provincial council system, he added. (Sri Lanka Mirror)

Minister Duminda Dissanayake yesterday called for an independent investigation into the alleged fraudulent money transfer to a bank account belonging to a Government Minister. 

The Minister lamented damage to his good name as it has been suggested that a sum of Rs. 150 million had been transferred to his account.  “My image, although blurred, has been used by different websites which have published the story. No one will come to rectify the damage to my reputation so I, too, urge authorities to conduct a proper investigation into the matter,” he said, speaking to reporters yesterday. 

The Minister also said that the entire Government should not be held responsible for the misconduct of one Minister, highlighting that an independent system has been set up by the current administration to deal with such frauds. 

“No one is above the law now. There is a system in place to carry out independent investigations and bring wrongdoers to book,” he said.

Source : Daily FT

The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation Services has said that the 36-kilometre extension of the southern coastal rail line from Matara to Beliatta will be completed and declared open before the end of this year.

The first phase of the rail track from Matara to Kataragama which is the track from Matara to Beliatta is scheduled to be vested with the public, the state-run TV network ITN reported.

The second phase of the project is the 48-kilometre segment from Beliatta to Hambantota and the in the third phase the track will be extended another 39 kilometres from Hambantota to Kataragama.

Main stations have been planned at Kekanadura, Bambarenda, Wewurukannala and Beliatta. Two substations will be set up at Piladuwa and Weherahena.

A flyover of one kilometre will be built from Matara to Kekunadura. Sri Lanka's longest rail tunnel will be built on this line at Naakuttigama. It will be 615 meters long. Another tunnel with a length of 268 meters will be built at Bambarenda on this rail track.

The main railway station at Beliatta has a length of 300 meters and it will have three platforms.

Underground tunnels will be made for the passengers to move across the platforms of the station. Plans have been drawn up to construct underground tunnels at the four main railway stations.

The railway track will be built across the Nilwala River. Therefore a bridge with a length of 1037 meters will be built across the Nilwala River.

(Colombo Page)

The United Nations Development Progeramme (UNDP) has partnered with a range of stakeholders from the Government and the private sector to further invest in the potential of young people in the areas of technology, entrepreneurship and social innovation.

'HackaDev', the National Youth Social Innovation Challenge, is one such initiative which is a platform for young people to be a part of the solutions to development challenges within their communities.

Co-financed by the Ministry of Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka and the National Youth Services Council, the challenge recently carried out 9 idea auditions through 9 provincial programs.

Following the idea auditions, the 45 best social innovation ideas have now been selected for 3 five-day residential social innovation camps in 3 locations around the country throughout the month of October, engaging 15 teams each. At the camps, the teams will be taken through a journey of building, refining, mentoring and validating their idea, in a carefully designed program to support social innovation ideas in the Sri Lankan context. A total of 11 teams will receive seed funding and incubation support.

Earlier in the year, prior to the call for applications, the program successfully concluded an Ideation and outreach phase in 25 programs covering all districts of the country, engaging more than 2500 young people.

Sachindra Samararatne, Programme Manager, ICTA Sri Lanka stated "The Idea Auditions were an interactive experience for the applicants where the teams were given an opportunity to present their innovative solutions to a comprehensive panel of judges. There were some very interesting solutions to some development issues so now we are excited to see how the selected teams will refine and validate these ideas with the knowledge and expertise shared at the five-day social Innovation camps in October." 

Another flagship initiative is the 'Technopreneurship for Social Change' program which focuses on catalyzing social change by creating and empowering a large cohort of Technopreneurs in the country. The initiative reaches more than 1000 young people around the country through 20 programs in 20 locations through e-learning courses on leadership, financial literary and entrepreneurship.

Speaking about her experience, Hansani Erangika Palihawadana, participant from Matale in the Central Province stated, "I had always wanted to start my own business but it was just an idea and I didn't know how to go about it. I heard about this programme through our youth center and so I signed up immediately. Through the modules that were taught to us, I realized that it is actually a possibility. I am very excited now and confident that I can make it happen."