The Deyata Kirula rip-off

by Ranil Wijayapala

The Deyata Kirula exhibition was a money -spinner for Rajapaksa and his cohorts such as former Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and officials involved in organising the event, a complaint lodged at the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption revealed.

- development.lk

According to the complaint the event set a bad precedent to public officials on the misuse of public funds in violation of the government's fiscal policy and the stipulated tender procedure.

The Deyata Kirula exhibition which was scheduled for February 4, 2013 at the Hardy College of Technical Education, Ampara and was later postponed due to the adverse weather was a miracle for fraudulent politicians in stead of being a 'Miracle to the East' the theme of the exhibition.

When people thronged the exhibition in large numbers the organising committee had decided to spend over Rs.309 million from government coffers and other statutory bodies lavishly to appease a few selected contractors violating the practice of good governance and share the profit among themselves.

They used the pandal erected at the entrance and even sanitary facilities to siphon-off funds, the compalint revealed. It stated the exhibition and the Procurement Committee had violated the tender procedure by offering contractors the main and the second stage ignoring the lowest bid offered by Srimal Advertising (Pvt) Ltd at Rs.16,70,000.

However, the Procurement Committee which met on December 11, 2012 and on January 2, 2013 decided to offer the tender for the main stage and the background to Video Team (Pvt) Ltd of 941/13, 6th Lane, Ethul Kotte, Kotte which offered the fifth highest bid for the tender. Its offer of Rs.38,50,000, was Rs.2,000,000 higher than the bid made by Srimal Advertising (Pvt) Ltd.

Not only had the Procurement Committee violated the tender procedure but also it had amended the offer of the TVT (Pvt ) Ltd to Rs.8.7 million by dividing contract to two for the main and the second stage.

Even after amending the contract for the creation of the main stages and the background of the stage to Rs.8.7 million despite their offer to undertake it at Rs.3,850,000 the Procurement Committee approved a payment of Rs.9.7 million according to the final accounts of the exhibition in violation of the government's fiscal policy.

Misappropriation

Considering the Rs.16,70,000 lowest bid to set up stages and the background and the payment of Rs.9.7 million to the TVT (Pvt) Ltd Rs. 8.1 million has been misappropriated on the construction of the main stage.

- cdjedmin.gov.lk

Similar misappropriations had taken place in the previous Deyata Kirula exhibitions and the same institution was paid exorbitant amounts for various constructions. Public funds amounting to Rs.120,000 per day and for Rs.25,000 per each additional day had been spent when 60x40 ft stages were available for rent at the rate .

The second stage could have been hired for Rs.100,000 and paying Rs.25,000 for each additional day the entire cost would have been Rs.670,000. However, the committee had paid Rs.9.7 million for the two stages and the background.

The Procurement and Exhibition Committees had spent Rs. 11 million on the pandal at the entrance disregarding the lowest offer of Rs.1.1 million.

That contract had also been offered to the The Video Team. As authorities had permitted them to get sponsors to set up the entrance pandal the amount spent for this has not been included in the final accounts of the exhibition.

It is evident that a the three committees responsible for organizing the Deyata Kirula exhibition had taken decisions disregarding the basic norms in spending public funds and had paid Rs.33.95 million to cleae 260 washrooms constructed at the exhibition site whereas the cost for the construction of temporary toilets cost only Rs.15 million.

Rs.33.95 million had been paid to On Cleaning Service disregarding the lowest bid for sanitary services made by Abans Cleaning and Floorcare (Pvt) Ltd. Abans (Pvt) Ltd. had offered services for one washroom at Rs. 820 + VAT while Floorcare offered Rs.10,950.

Though the second offer was feasible the procurement committee had decided to offer the tender to On cleaning Service. The Ampara Urban Council had undertaken the removal of human waste from the toilets in the exhibition site and separate payment had been made for that service according to the final accounts.

The tender procedure had also been violated by the exhibition committee when offering the tender for the event management of the exhibition.

The Procurement Committee had made a separate payment to the Event Management company for organizing the opening ceremony eventhough it was a part of the contract.

It had been the same with he previous exhibition in Oyamaduwa in which the same event management company has been paid separately for organizing the opening and the closing ceremonies.

Lower bid

The procurement committee decided to offer the tender for event management to the The Video Team (Pvt) ltd which had offered a bid of Rs.195,000,00 The main functions that had to be undertaken by the Event Management company, according to the tender announcement, includes the development of an appropriate concept and designing visuals under the theme of the exhibition, planning and managing the opening and closing ceremonies and the construction of special creations needed for the opening and closing ceremonies. It was clear that Video Team had offered a lower bid to secure the contract but later it had increased to Rs.35,500,000 for the entire event management contract. Therefore, the Video Team had been paid Rs.16,000,000 in excess without getting the approval from the Procurement Committee violating the accepted tender procedure and fiscal policy.

Though high ranking public officials are supposed to act as watchdogs on public funds the officials responsible for spending public money for the Deyata Kirula exhibition had disregarded the accepted methods of spending public funds for the exhibition.

Although calling for limited tenders for the supply of services is accepted only when there are special requirements, the exhibition committee has called for limited tenders to offer contracts for selected institutes disregarding whether the service were required or not. Though Deyata Kirula Exhibition Secretariat was responsible for the calling for tenders for any service or procurement of any goods a n Assistant Secretary had called for limited bids from selected service providers for the supply of mobile sanitary facilities and offered those contracts to selected contractors.

Only four companies had forwarded their bids for the tender for supply of mobile toilets and maintaining them during the exhibition in response to calling for limited bids for tenders.

Though Arjun Construction (Pvt) Ltd had offered the lowest bid to supply one unit of mobile toilet facility and maintain it at Rs.37,500 during the exhibition period that offer had been rejected by the procurement committee saying it had no experience providing such service.

It had been revealed that though the initial plan was to set up 50 mobile toilets, 150 mobile facilities have been provided.

Though Floorcare Cleaning Service had initially offered to provide and maintain one mobile washroom at Rs.53,430 that rate had been increased to Rs.158,400.00 per unit by an official after calling for bids on the sly.

Though calling for limited bids from service providers are meant to get the rates reduced the official concern had made use of it to increase the rates offered by the service provider.

Going against the normal tender procedure, that official had obtained the service of Clean Tech Pvt Ltd for a mobile washroom at Rs.110,400. Clean Tech (Pvt) Ltd had provided 60 mobile toilet units.

Due to this irregularities in the tender procedure involving a Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology the total loss to the government has been estimated at Rs.7,094,304. After the Deyata Kirula exhibition due was postponed due to bad weather prevailed in Ampara the exhibition committee had decided to set up monument to reminiscene the Arantala Bikkhu massacre in the exhibition area.

The creation of a monument to showcase the assassination of Bhikkus in Aranthalawa had been offered according to the wish of Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya disregarding the stipulated procedures to offer such tenders.

Tender procedure

A staggering Rs.12,500,000 (Rs. 12.5 million) had been offered to a company without following the tender procedures. That amount had been paid to set up 38 monuments of Bhikkus using fiberglass which could had been done at a cost of Rs.1 million if competitive bids were called for.

The contract for setting up of the monument for the Aranthalawa Bikku Assasination has been offered to Design Age (Pvt) Ltd without considering the other lower offer made by The Video Team (Pvt) Ltd (Rs.2,000,000).

It was due to the influence of Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya that contract has been offered to that institute disregarding the tender procedures.

The complaint also points out that the attempts to stop the misappropriation and financial irregularities by certain public officials had also been prevented by the authorities with the support of high ranking public officials who aided and abetted the fraudulent acts of the politicians.

Therefore this has resulted in waste of public unds to the tune of Rs.200 million which could have been used for welfare services and development programs to boost economic growth.