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The interim management of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is heading into troubled waters following the resignation of Group Chief Financial Officer Lalith Fernando recently, SLT sources disclosed.

 The new interim management team was appointed on December 21 to steer the SLT following the resignation of CEO Dileepa Wijesundera on Wednesday 13 amidst trade union’s allegations of corruption and mismanagement against him.

Fernando had been appointed as the Group CFO to oversee the financial management of SLT and subsidiaries accept Mobitel.

He tendered his resignation citing difficulties in managing finances of the company mishandled by the former CEO, one source said.

SLT Board of Directors will meet on Thursday to discuss the present situation and take a decision on the appointment of a new CEO, he said.

SLT operates under an executive committee headed by Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe and three groups headed by three Chief Officers during the transition period.

After the resignation of the Group Chief Financial Officer this management system has been reduced to two groups.

Source : The Sunday Times

A haul of over 900 Kilograms of Cocaine seized by the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) will be publicly destroyed tomorrow under the supervision of the Colombo Chief Magistrate. President Maithripala Sirisena will also be in attendance to observe the process where the sized drugs will be liquefied and destroyed.

The event will take place at the premises of the INSEE Ecocycle organization located at the Board of Investments in Katunayake. “The liquified drugs will be incinerated thereafter at a facility in Puttalam” Police Media Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

 A probationary government should be appointed to save the country from the prevailing political crisis, President Maithripala Sirisena’s Political affairs Coordinator Attorney at Law Shiral Lakthilaka has stressed.

He made these comments to ISIS news when questioned regarding a statement made by him to a weekend newspaper where he was quoted as saying that the country needs to establish a ‘caretaker government’.

According to Lakthilaka, a new approach is needed to face all the crises being faced by the country. “When all the corruption reports are released the political environment of the country will change drastically,” he said adding that the current form of government will not be sustainable as a result.

Therefore if we are to think of any constitutional changes a probationary government under the guidance of the President needs to be established he said.

The Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Pettah Police station has been transferred to the Batticaloa Police division immediately following the suicide of a youth in Police custody this week. The transfer was recommended by the committee appointed to investigate the incident by the Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara following an investigation into the incident. The transfer was also approved by the National Police Commission and the Election Commission.

According to the Police the 17-year-old detainee, a resident of Haputale had been arrested for the possession of cannabis on Wednesday in the Bastian Mawatha area. He was later found hanging in his detention cell the next day morning. The youth is suspected to have commited suicide.

The investigation committee is said to have observed the detention cell and taken down statements from officers of the Pettah Police station on Friday.

Minister of External Affairs of India, Sushma Swaraj on Saturday (13), met Sri Lankan Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and discussed issues of development cooperation between the two countries.

Minister Samaraweera also held a meeting with his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley. The Ministers reviewed the present status of ongoing economic projects between the two countries.

Sri Lanka is one of the major recipients of development credit given by India, with total commitment of around USD 2.63 billion, including USD 458 million as grants.

Under a line of credit of USD 167.4 million, the tsunami-damaged Colombo-Matara rail link has been repaired and upgraded.

Another line of credit of USD 800 million for track laying and supply of rolling stock to support construction of railway lines in northern Sri Lanka is already operational.

The Presidential Investigative Committee to investigate and report on the causes for the collapse of the Meethotamulla garbage dump has requested for a date to hand over the report with its findings and recommendations to President Maithripala Sirisena.

President Maithripala Sirisena appointed the single-member committee on April 26, 2017, to investigate into the garbage collapse on April 14, 2017.

According to sources, the report which is to be handed over to the President consists of 50,000 pages.

Twenty-six persons from government institutions, statutory bodies, Parliamentarians, Non-Governmental Organisations, and the public were questioned on this connection. Retired High Court Judge Chandradasa Nanayakkara spearheaded the investigation.

Former minister Ravi Karunanayake says he too has now received a copy of the Bond Commission report.

The Minister made these comments when questioned by media personnel at a party office opening in Mattakkuliya, Colombo.

In fact, the Minister had requested a copy of the report through the Right to information act by writing to the Secretary to the President. However, he is yet to receive an official copy.

 Unofficial copy to the PM

Meanwhile, 11 pages of the Bond commission report consisting of its recommendations is said to have been handed over to the PM unofficial sources said.

The report consisting of over 1000 pages which were handed over to the President on December 30 is yet to be publicized. Sources say the report handed over to the PM has some severely serious content but none of the recommendations made by the committee directly affect Ravi K or the PM.

Witnesses of the case regarding 11 youth being killed at the Trincomalee Gunside Naval Base are said to be receiving death threats. Making a complaint to the Human Rights Commission, one of the main witness to the case former Lieutenant Commander Krishan Welagedara made these claims adding that investigating officers of the CID should not be discouraged from carrying out their duties as well.

Lieutenant Commander Krishan Welagedara has given several statements regarding the case after former Commander of the Navy, Wasantha Karannagoda complained to the CCD regarding the incident and investigations for the case B 732/22009 commenced in 2009. Statements made by Welagedara were confirmed by the former Navy intelligence Chief A.K Guruge.

Death threats

In the letter handed over to the HRC on January 3, Welagedara claimed that despite over 70 naval officers confirming the chain of events, Attorneys at Law Udaya Gammanpila and Ajith Prasanna are making public comments while behaving in a manner which is threatening to his life he said.

He also claimed the Ajith Prasanna continues to make threats through social media platforms while actions of these two have dragged the lives of his family in to danger as well.

As this is a case of mass murder and the behaviour of the duo is a criminal offence under the Assistant to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act No. 04 of 2015)

No complaints against Karannagoda!

While pointing out that these persons have made no allegations against former Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda who first brought the case to the attention of the authorities Welagedara requested for legal protection from statements being made by them.

Sources from the HRC claimed that discussions will be held in this regard while necessary action will be taken thereafter.

(resa.lk)

Serious concerns have been raised regarding the project to provide 2 in 1 tablet computers to Grama Niladhari officers islandwide by the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital

According to sources all state procedures have been violated to give the project to a higher bidder when better bids existed. They say an underhand deal has taken place with the participation of several high ranking officers of the Ministry to hand over the project to the said company.

The project commenced according to the 2017 budget proposal is set to provide 2 in 1 tablet computers to all Grama Niladhari officers in the country.

Accordingly an advertisement had been placed in the Daily News on August 25, 2017 seeking out companies that can provide the necessary tabs for the project.

While the bids to provide 7000 tabs were opened on September 21, 2017 the Ministry had received six bids on the day.

Second bidder given prominence

According to sources the owest bid had been Rs. 683 Million with the second lowest bid being Rs. 731 Million. The highest bidder had reportedly quoted Rs. 854 Million.

However no technical assesment as required by state procedure has taken place for this project sources say adding that the Ministry Secretary has handed over the tender to V S information system who had submitted a bid of Rs. 731. While informing all bidders of this decision the Ministry Secretary has requested the bidders to approach the Presidential appeals board if needed.

While one bidder had approached the appeals board, a tripartiate comitte had conducted an investigation in this regard in Ocotber. However the result of this investigation remains unknown. The project also appears to have halted while in reality the officers should have received the tablet computers by now.

Meanwhile photos have been leaked which shows a close relationship between the committee members with the successful bidder.

The photographs show the Secretary of the Ministry with Kasun Warnakulasuriya of EZY which provides computers to V S Information systems. ICT is also said to have a close relationship with EZY.

While handing projects over personal friendships cannot be acceptable if proper action against this is not taken by the Minister Harin Fernando he would in turn have to face the consequences sources said.

Chief Minister of the Western Province Isura Devapriya, is said to have angered the President by making a statement regarding the Former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday. The President is said to have called the Chief Minister and seriously reprimanded him sources from the President’s office said.

Speaking at a public meeting aimed at the local government polls the Chief Minister had claimed that it was the President that asked Gotabaya Rajapaksa to leave the country during a time elections have been called.

The Chief Minister said despite certain members of the Rajapaksa family conspiring to jail the President, he however informed Gotabaya Rajapaksa before hand thereby allowing for him to leave the country early.

According to the Chief Minister certain members of the Rajapaksa’s have thereby attempted to discredit the President and the SLFP. However the President is said to have told the Chief Minister that the ‘flower bud group’ of the Rajapaksa family might ask Gotabaya to return to reply to these allegations sources said.

Video

President Maithripala Sirisena says a Presidential Commission will be appointed to investigate into the alleged abuse of state money and public property involving SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka next week.

The President made these comments addressing a Sri Lanka Freedom Party rally in Dambulla yesterday.

According to Sirisena names of other politicians involved in corruption will be revealed once the commissions are appointed.

Speaking at the rally, the President said the true nature of the previous government's so-called development will be revealed to the public in the future and whatever the challenges, he will change the corrupt political culture to win the challenge of building the country.

President Sirisena noted that it was he who, through the 19th Amendment to the constitution abrogated the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed the president to remain in power for life.

The President said that he was the only leader who acted to curtail the powers of the executive presidency and hand over the powers to the parliament and no other leader of the world has done that.

A furor broke out this week in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry after the chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), Udaya Nanayakkara, refused to abide by the tourism minister’s order to step down and deemed the decree “illegal”.

Minister of Tourism John Amaratunga and SLTPB Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara. Photo: Daily FT.

Nanayakkara had been preparing plans for a destination marketing campaign to take off this year, as a budget of 5.3 billion rupees (US$35 million) had been set aside for calendar 2018, the largest ever in a single year, for two campaigns and other promotional activity.

“This is very disturbing, coming at a time when the long-overdue marketing campaign is about to get off the ground,” said the head of a tourism conglomerate who agreed to speak on the basis on anonymity.

The shocking move came just as the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators and The Hotel Association of Sri Lanka released a joint statement welcoming efforts to expedite the digital advertising campaign planned for early 2018 and the global advertising campaign scheduled later in the year.

While the reason given for the dismissal was that the ministry wanted to re-constitute the board, none of the other 10 board members received similar letters.

The minister said the board will be chaired by the secretary of the Ministry of Tourism in the interim and assured that all marketing plans are on track.

The minister had also told local media that the move was made considering complaints from within the industry of delays in rolling out projects. Industry players, however, alleged the dispute was due to the minister’s advisors interfering in decisions and trying to secure contracts for known parties.

As well, the legality of the dismissal has also become a point of contention. The country’s independent Election Commission, which will conduct island-wide polls to local authorities on February 10, has issued a directive to all state institutions banning new appointments, promotions and demotions, etc, until February 15. This is a routine order to guard against the ruling party offering jobs to party supporters during elections.

(TTG ASIA)