{"id":130196,"date":"2014-09-12T12:32:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T07:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=130196"},"modified":"2014-09-22T13:29:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T07:59:39","slug":"presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It has been revealed in Parliament that the expenses of President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>\u2019s official staff during the past three years have exceeded Rs. 1340 million of taxpayers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-130197\" alt=\"Mahinda Senarath\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\" width=\"437\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg 437w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 437px) 100vw, 437px\" \/><\/a>This had been disclosed at the Parliament by Chief Government Whip, Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Dinesh+Gunawardena&amp;x=8&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Dinesh Gunawardena<\/span><\/a> in response to a question raised by JVP Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Anura+Kumara+Dissanayake&amp;x=8&amp;y=1\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Anura Kumara Dissanayake<\/span><\/a> who had stated that presently there are 1348 persons attached to the official staff of the President including Uva UPFA Provincial Council polls candidate and close relative of the President \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shashindra+Rajapaksa&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Shashindra Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> who even at present, holds the position of a private secretary to President Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Gunawardena had stated that the total value of the expenses of the Presidential staff during the past three years was Rs. 1,340,575,569.15, with some Rs 994,492.26 per staffer. Apart from their monthly salaries, each worker is entitled to a series of allowances to which includes transportation and fuel allowances.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, it had been pointed out by Minister Gunawardena that the present number of workers in the President\u2019s staff is much lesser than the actual number that has been approved which is 1,488.<\/p>\n<p>Dissanayake had pointed out that the numbers are appalling since only Rs.1.1 million is allocated for the Health Sector in the country.<\/p>\n<p>It was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksas-daily-cost-to-taxpayer-a-staggering-rs-23-4-million-sobitha-thera\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">recently pointed<\/span><\/a> out that the daily expenses of the President amounts to Rs. 23,400,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":130197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-12T07:02:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-22T07:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"437\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"356\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/\",\"name\":\"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-12T07:02:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-22T07:59:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg\",\"width\":437,\"height\":356},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2014-09-12T07:02:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-22T07:59:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":437,"height":356,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/","name":"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-12T07:02:41+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-22T07:59:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg","width":437,"height":356},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-staff-cost-during-past-three-years-exceeds-rs-1340-million\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Presidential Staff Cost During Past Three Years Exceeds Rs.1340 Million"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Mahinda-Senarath.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130201,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130196\/revisions\/130201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}