Report over coal tender deal due next week

By Rukshana Rizwie

A three-member committee appointed to probe alleged corruption over the coal tender procedure for the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, are expected to submit the report to the Minister of Power and Energy, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya on July 29.

Prof Lakshman R. Watawala a member of the committee told the Sunday Observer that K.K.Y.W Perera and Prof Janaka B. Ekanayake, the other two members, had met once last week to discuss the matter.

“We have been requested to furnish the report on July 29, for which we will need to meet again to deliberate,”he said.

The UPFA Joint Opposition charged that amendments which were made to the previous tender paved the way for the highest bidder to secure the tender, a corrupt practice which they alleged had cost the government Rs. 710 million.

The Supreme Court last week issued an order suggesting that the Government calls for fresh tenders to supply for the Lakvijaya power plant and dismissed the petition filed by Singapore-based Noble Resources International Ltd. as it was a foreign company and therefore could not be shielded under Sri Lankan law.

The Petitioner Noble Resources in its application to courts cited that the decision to award the final tender was not only unlawful but in violation of the practices of the tender procedure.