Oyamaduwa Deyata Kirula:

A Rs.822m deceit

Norms of spending public funds ignored:

Select group facilitated:

Millions misappropriated:

Final account approval not obtained:

by Ranil Wijayapala

The Deyata Kirula exhibition launched by the former government in 2007 was meant to create awareness among people about sacrifices made by the Security Forces in their march to liberate the country from the clutches of terrorism.

Entrance to Oyamaduwa Deyata Kirula

However, with the victory achieved by the Security Forces in May 2009, the theme of the Deyata Kirula exhibition changed from national security to development. The exhibition which was confined to Colombo was taken to the rest of the country to boost rural development.

The UPFA, which came to power for the second time in 2010 with the war victory, according to critics had no limits to parading this achievement and spending to boost former President Rajapaksa's image, whether it was at an exhibition, opening ceremony or any other national event. Observers say that those who served him were not bound to follow the financial regulations, tender procedures or any other accepted norm, stipulated rules and regulations when using public money.

They spent public funds lavishly to appease a selected group of contractors when carryingout their projects in the guise of development.

Lavish spending

After the end of war the Deyata Kirula exhibition had apparently turned into a fanfare of the Rajapaksa regime and also into an event to waste public money without any return to the country.

Though the lavish spending was done under the pretext of development, insiders who did not approve the same procedure in the subsequent exhibitions and fought against the perpetrators of these crimes are now coming up with detailed descriptions on how the State mechanisms were ignored and the way public funds were misused with the backing of politicos and public officials.

According to these revelations, the sixth edition of the Deyata Kirula exhibition unfolded in Oyamaduwa close to the Wilpattu National Park on the border of the Anuradhapura District, depicts how public money was spent so callously for a selected group of contractors ignoring the norms of spending public funds and also the theme of the exhibition.

Misappropriation of funds

A complaint has been lodged at the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption holding five people including the Minister and former public servants in charge of the Procurement Committee of the Deyata Kirula Exhibition 2012 in Oyamaduwa, Anuradhapura, responsible for the misappropriation and waste of public funds.

The Deyata Kirula National Exhibition Committee, Deyata Kirula Technical Evaluation Committee, and Deyata Kirula National Operational Committee were responsible for organizing the exhibition. Former Deputy Finance Minister and later Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was the chief organiser of the exhibition from 2007 to 2014.

Around Rs. 630 million from the Treasury, Rs.127 million from Sponsors in the State and corporate sector and Rs.65 million from the Pilisaru project of the Environment Ministry were allocated for the Exhibition.

According to reports Rs.822 million has been allocated for the exhibition of which Rs.250 million has been allocated for the construction of a paddy storage facility in Oyamaduwa.

Therefore, Rs.380 million has been allocated for the organizing and conduct of the exhibition for eight days but the total expenditure of the exhibition was stated as Rs. 397 million, which exceeds the allocated amount for the event.

Therefore, an in-depth analysis of the final accounts of the exhibition indicates that around Rs.250 million had been spent above the approved amount by the Procurement Committee.

According to the complaint made at the Commission to Investigate the Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, almost the entire expenditure of the exhibition has been shared by seven institutions in Colombo and the outstations, despite the Cabinet under the CP/11/1835/504/148 deciding to hold the exhibition to boost rural development.

All the contracts of the exhibition were shared by the seven contractors: Srimal Advertising (Pvt) Ltd. Makola road , Kiribathgoda,

The Video Team (Pvt) Ltd, Ethul Kotte, ARM Builders, Pallekele, Kundasale, Creative Entertainment Pvt Ltd. Panadura, PN Electricals Moratuwa, SN Cleaning Service, Ja-ela and Clean Tec (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo 5.

Though the theme of the Oyamaduwa, Deyata Kirula exhibition was 'Grandeur Revisited' it did not benefit people in Anuradhapura since only two contracts were given to an institution in the district.

The two contracts for the construction of permanent toilet facilities and the grass turfing were awarded to Pushpamala Construction (Pvt) Ltd, Palugama, Anuradhapura valued less than Rs.10 million.

The fundamentals of transparency and accountability have been breached openly when offering the tenders and also when making payments for the contractors selected through the tender procedure by the Deyata Kirula National Operational Committee which was empowered to act as the Procurement Committee of the exhibition. The committee was headed by S. Amarasekara, former Secretary to the then Prime Minister and it consisted of six ministry secretaries.

Though some expenditure were stated in the final accounts approval was not obtained from the procurement committee for such arrangements and payments. For instance, despite making a payment of Rs.74,237,106.40 for the preparation, clearing and demarcation of the ground, and for the provision of security to the exhibition area no such approval has been taken from the procurement committee for such arrangements.

Excess amounts

According to detail accounts of the Oyamaduwa, Deyata Kirula exhibition, have been paid for the lighting of the exhibition area, supply of power generators, sanitary services, provision of mobile toilets, provision of the temporary huts, designing and construction the main stage, designing and construction of the entrance to the exhibition, event management and solid waste management.The final accounts prove that though the contract for the designing and creating the main entrance of the exhibition, according to the Procurement Committee decision on November 14, 2011, was awarded to the Video Team (pvt) Ltd. for Rs.21,500,000 the Video Team has been paid Rs.24,651,600.00 in the final accounts for event management.

What is alarming is that Rs.2,408,000 and Rs.4,206,000 had been paid to ARM Builders and Digital House, the subcontractors of the Video Team for the construction of the entrance separately for the constriction of the main entrance to the exhibition. Therefore the total cost of the entrance to the exhibition exceeded Rs.31 million.Allocating such a staggering amount for the entrance to the exhibition seems ridiculous because the structure is not a permanent one. If the task was given to artists in that area they would have done it less than Rs.1 million with the balance Rs.30 million for the construction of at least 60 permanent houses spending at least Rs.500,000 for each house for the poverty stricken people e in the Oyamaduwa area.The cost of solid waste management also raise concerns as Rs.41 million has been paid to ARM builders whilst another Rs.20,461,593.00 has been spent for the Commissioner of Local Government for managing solid waste outside the exhibition area.

The ARM Builders had been paid Rs.41,440,000 for this task thought the approved amount, according to the decision taken by the procurement committee on November 14, 2011. The committee had awarded the tender for the highest bidder disregarding the lower bids made by other contractors. There had been no specifications in the tender document whether the contract is awarded for the management of solid waste within the exhibition area or outside the exhibition area. Rs.20,461,593.00 had been paid to the Commissioner of Local Government for taking the services of the Local Government bodies in the area to clean the outer periphery of the exhibition area without any approval of the procurement committee.

Final accounts

What is alarming is the Colombo Municipal Council spending only Rs.1 billion out of its annual budget for the solid waste management when its monthly expenditure is only Rs.80 million. However, the organising committee of the Deyata Kirula exhibition had been generous enough to spend Rs.61 million for the solid waste management for the eight days of exhibition. Though the Pilisaru Project of the Environment Ministry had allocated Rs.65 million for the exhibition there had been no mention about it in the final accounts of the exhibition.

If the organisers had an iota of concern for the public money spent for this task and about the benefits they were talking about from the exhibition to the area, they could have easily facilitate the Local Government bodies in the area with the funds to purchase additional equipment to fulfill the task. If done so the Local Government Bodies there can use the equipment even today to keep their area clean.

According to the information provided to the Commission to Investigate the Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, payment had been duplicated ignoring the tenders that had been awarded to fulfill the same task. For instance the Video Team had been awarded the tender for the event management of the exhibition for Rs.21,500,000 ignoring the lowest offer of Rs.16,750,000 by a reputed company. However, Rs.37,870,560 had been paid to the event management company in the final accounts. This is because the same company has been paid Rs.18, 735,360.00 separately for organizing the opening ceremony of the exhibition. This payment had been made despite developing an appropriate concept and designing visuals under the theme, planing and managing the opening and the closing ceremonies, constructions in the tender documents are included under the title 'event management' in the tender documents.

Though there are ample misappropriations and excess payments made to the contractors without the approval of the procurement committee of the Oyamaduwa and Ampara exhibitions , according the complaint made at the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption by Attorney at Law Chula Bandara on July 27, only few misappropriations and callous spending of the public money are mentioned in this article.

Political influence

However, the Sunday Observer reliably learns the Procurement committee not only violated the basic tender procedures but also has changed the decisions taken at the tender meetings to cover up the expenditure.

The approval of payments of public money by higher State officials in the Procurement committee according to their whims and fancies due to political influence or to please politicians to get their service extended resulted in colossal loss of public funds without benefitting people. Sources said the minister in charge of the exhibition, the former Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, with the higher ranking government officials is accountable for the irregularities and misappropriations of public funds violating the financial regulations and tender procedures of the government.