Wednesday 18th February 2015
By Saman Indrajith
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday that the present government wanted to further strengthen relations with China and develop them more than the previous government.
"We will not let goodwill and friendship between China and Sri Lanka be jeopardised because of fraud and corruption. Neither China nor Sri Lanka will protect fraudsters. Both our countries have taken a strong position against fraud and corruption," the Prime Minister said making a statement to Parliament on the Port City project.
The Prime Minister’s speech was made in response to a query by the Leader of the Opposition Nimal Siripala de Silva two weeks ago.
The full speech of the Prime Minister:
During the past few days various new items about the Colombo port City appeared in the media in our country. On Feb. 6 this matter was raised by the JVP leader Anura Dissanayaka, too. On Feb. 10 the matter was raised by the Leader of The Opposition Nimal Siripala de Silva. He asked that the
Government’s position on this project be stated in the House.
We have pointed out that the process followed by the previous government with regard to the Colombo port City project is neither lawful nor ethical.
We questioned this matter on several occasions. On Feb. 7, 2014, the then Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva stated that "all these decisions have been taken according to the necessary regulations and all the relevant reports will be presented to Parliament."
However, 11 months after we raised this question, neither Nimal Siripala de Silva nor anyone else in the government presented any report to the House. Even on march 4, 2014, then Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne told the House that a report on the project would be presented to the House. However, even till the debate at the presidential poll, this report was not presented to the House.
All the relevant activities to the Port City were not done in a transparent manner. Several lawful methods were not adhered to. The agreement with regard to the project was signed without cabinet approval. In addition to that there was no proper response to the allegations that the proper environment impact assessment reports have not been obtained.
After coming to power, we started looking into all these aspects. On that occasion, on the face of it, it seemed that there are serious suspicions regards this transaction. It became clear that the previous government had hidden from this House all the facts and reports pertaining to the Colombo Port City project. Additionally many false facts had been placed before this House.
Due to this I set up a special committee to look into the port City project. The chairman of this committee is Ajith de Costa. The other members are Professor Ruchira Kumaratunga, Dr N.G. Wijayananda, Dr Anil Premaratne, Dr Samantha Hettiarachchi, Channa Fernando, A.S. Obeysekera and Ms. Sunila Jayawardena.
I have also appointed a Cabinet subcommittee headed by me to study the report of these experts and to take the necessary decisions.
This committee as well as the subcommittee will study the port city project in depth as well as with a great care. All angles will be looked into in detail. In addition to that the representations made by the public will also be looked into. Several environmental groups have expressed concerns about this project. We will look into all these.
As Cabinet Spokesman Dr Rajitha Senaratne once said we had not yet taken a decision to terminate this project. We will inspect all aspects related to this agreement. We will take necessary action if there are any malpractices, illegal transactions, corruption or anything against the national interest.
We will make a final decision on the basis of the report of the experts and the findings of investigations and inform this assembly of our decision. This problem turned worse and evolved to the level of a crisis because this House had not been properly informed of all aspects pertaining to the project.
The President and I discussed this issue with a delegation from China. We informed that we will not pardon anyone whether they are politicians, officials, public institutions, or corporations if they were involved in any corruption, fraud connected to this project.
We will not let goodwill and friendship between China and Sri Lanka be jeopardized because of fraud and corruption. Neither China nor Sri Lanka will protect fraudsters. Not only Sri Lanka but also China is on a strong position against fraud and corruption.
I would like to wind up my response with a quotation by Chinese President Xi Jinping. "We will make sure that the Party’s conduct continues to be improved, that the ills of formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance are properly dealt with, and that new progress is made in promoting Party conduct, political integrity, the people’s morality and social ethics. We will further strengthen the efforts to punish corruption, and let disciplines and the law function effectively to guard against corruption. We will consolidate our work of corruption prevention, and see to it that Party members and officials perform better in upholding integrity, practicing self-discipline and warding off degeneration and corruption."
from: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=119864
