Chandrika slams ‘concocted’ CB reports
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) rubbished claims yesterday that the country’s economy had grown 8 per cent during the tenure of the previous government.
She instead alleged that the previous government had been riddled with many illegal and corrupt practices.
At a press conference called at the Finance Ministry yesterday, CBK charged that the Central Bank figures were manipulated during the previous regime.
She said experts had estimated the economy had expanded only by 5 per cent during the previous government tenure.
In addition, she noted that the vision to create certain hubs was initiated when she was President and the then UNP Government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. “The vision to create air, sea and cargo hubs was part of my government’s concept, while the tourism vision came from Ranil Wickremesinghe’s administration, which was a very good vision that was rejected by the Rajapaksa administration.”
She also noted that the projects initiated by the previous regime would be continued but would be renegotiated and brought within due legal processes.
The projects that will be renegotiated are the Port City and the Outer City Highway while the Northern Highway project will be also restarted.
Reiterating that the previous government had engaged in many corrupt practices, the former President alleged that its economic management ignored established legal process.
She noted that tenders were given to any individual and commissions of as high as 50 per cent were charged and agreements were cancelled when the commissions were not paid.
She said that while interest rates were generally at a maximum of two per cent on foreign borrowings, the previous government accepted interest rates at nine per cent, which were mainly from Chinese and European Banks.
Underscoring the corrupt practices under the previous regime she held out the example of how, during her regime, six big projects were entered into only after a thorough legal process filtered the best companies for the project.
One of the projects was the Norochocholai Power project. We paid only US $240 million for the first stage of the project. She said she had insisted the project commences during her administration.
Yet when this administration came in and they insisted on a 50 per cent commission, the companies stopped work on the projects and refused to return when an appeal was made to them later.
The companies that did begin work later on were not as efficient as the previous set and did not have the financial capacities of the previous companies.
When asked why there weren’t any prosecutions she said, since the government was democratic a proper investigation, which is not easy to accomplish, had to be first completed. This was now being done, she added.
(Source: Ceylon Today)
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Mummy, Didn’t you or the one next to you in the photo had anything to say about the falling Rupee?
Central Bank statistic never had any credibility for the stats branch has not the resources nor the will to conduct surveys and they are dependent on various departments. The government speculates on the growth rate yet there is no evidence to support this claim. Recently there were reports of giving relief to debtors, pensioners and farmers running into billions of rupees all on paper for there is no evidence to support this claim. We know a lot of paddy lands lay abandoned for various reasons yet the Central Bank is clueless as to the area abandoned and to what extent this effects the overall paddy production.
This go other industries like tea rubber and coconut! Once upon a time, during colonial times, there was the tea, rubber and coconut control that were housed in majestic buildings reflecting their importance and now they exist by name and offices reduced to shacks and the exporters of these commodities run riot for there is no none to keep track of their activities
It Chandrika was instrumental in the implementation of the Land Reform Law and within a couple of decades the plantations in the so called medium grown plantations were abandoned for the management of these were handed down to her cronies who had no clue about what it involved and the resident labor force made destitute
Looks like everything the previous regime said were false.
Now I am not sure what they said about finishing the war in 2009. May be that is also a lie and the heavy military war must be still secretly going on. I guess the previous government was hiding all the dead bodies from the war where they hid all the helicopters and Buckingham horses and Lamborghinis.
I am trying to workout whom to believe, whether the last government or a “choura rajina” .