Contractors overvalued by Rs. 40 Billion – COPE

The cost of phases one and two of the Central Expressway had been overvalued by contractors by approximately Rs 40 billion, the First Report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) of the Third Session of the Eighth Parliament revealed yesterday (24).

The report, presented to the House by COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, is for the period of 1 July 2017 to 30 September 2017.

According to the report, the engineers’ estimate for section one of the project was Rs 129 billion whereas the contracted value had been Rs 158 billion. The engineers’ estimate for section two of the project had been Rs 126.89 billion while the contracted cost had been Rs 137.1 billion.

Considering this, COPE has recommended that the Road Development Authority (RDA) submit a detailed report on the procurement process that has been undertaken in awarding contracts for the Central Expressway to both the Committee and the Auditor General. COPE also had requested the Auditor General to conduct an audit.

However, RDA failed to submit the requested report, even by 31 March 2018.

(Source: Ceylon Today – By Methmalie Dissanayake)