{"id":148447,"date":"2015-08-06T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=148447"},"modified":"2015-08-16T01:57:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T20:27:22","slug":"ranil-awarding-expressway-contract-to-controversial-mcc-raises-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-awarding-expressway-contract-to-controversial-mcc-raises-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil Awarding Expressway Contract To Controversial MCC Raises Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a>\u2019s decision to award\u00a0the Central\u00a0expressway\u00a0construction contract to the Metallurgical Corporation of\u00a0China raises a plethora of questions.<\/p>\n

Prior to the last Presidential polls it was Wickremesinghe and Co. who\u00a0accused the company of helping some top-notch politicians of the\u00a0previous Rajapaksa regime to pilfer billions of rupees by inflating\u00a0the construction costs of expressways.<\/p>\n

\"China<\/a>It was with regard to this company that the President Maithripala\u00a0Sirisena\u2019s manifesto claimed<\/span><\/a> that \u2018 If a total of Rs. 7.3 billion is\u00a0spent per kilometre on the construction of the Kadawata \u2013\u00a0Kerawalapitiya highway, the amount pilfered is Rs. 5.2 billion.\u2019<\/p>\n

With reference to the above Minister in charge of the subject Kabir\u00a0Hashim<\/span><\/a>\u2019s memorandum to Cabinet in April 2015 declared that the\u00a0contract had been awarded in January 2013 for Rs 66 billion, for 9.32\u00a0kilometres. He recommended that the scope of the highway be changed.<\/p>\n

(1) To construct the expressway with 4 lanes (abandoning the provision\u00a0to widen to 6 in the future)
\n(2) To reduce the length of viaducts
\n(3) To reduce the height of viaducts<\/p>\n

The Memorandum says there could be a substantial saving, but it does\u00a0not say what this would be.<\/p>\n

The report on the subject, dated, March 23rd, indicated that, with\u00a0several changes to the scope (including the omission of one proposed\u00a0interchange) the contract should cost Rs 41 billion. It also suggested\u00a0a reduction of 25 per cent in rates.<\/p>\n

This last point is not mentioned in the Minister\u2019s memorandum.\u00a0Certainly the report and his Memorandum make nonsense of the claim\u00a0that the contract should have been for less than 20 billion.<\/p>\n

Then matters get more curious. On March 30th the Prime Minster\u00a0submitted a note to the Cabinet to say that \u2018Unsolicited proposals in\u00a0general should not be accepted as a matter of policy. In the future,\u00a0all proposals should follow the Guidelines on Government Tender\u00a0Procedure issued in 1998\u2019. However there was provision for the Cabinet\u00a0Sub-Committee on Economic Affairs to review the \u201935 unsolicited\u00a0proposals\u2019 now in the pipeline and report.<\/p>\n

This Sub-Committee at a meeting on June 30 gave instructions to submit\u00a0information at the next meeting to decide on contractors for each\u00a0stage of what is now termed the Central Highway.<\/p>\n

Less than a week later the Prime Minister prepared a Cabinet paper in\u00a0which he said that \u2018The government had already agreed that they (MCC)\u00a0should utilize the savings in OCH3 to undertake construction of a few\u00a0kilometres on the first section of expressway from Kadawata where the\u00a0OCH3 terminates\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Paper does not mention the amount of the savings. There is\u00a0no indication of when or why the government had agreed to these terms\u00a0with MCC. All this suggests that, far from acting on the assertion in\u00a0the Manifesto that the Kadawata-Kerawalapitiya Highway was a source of\u00a0massive commissions to the last government, the new government was\u00a0determined without following tender procedures, to award yet another\u00a0contract to this same company.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Secretary to the Ministry who had prepared the\u00a0frameworks for competitive bidding, was summarily dismissed by the\u00a0minister.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that the dismissed Secretary Udaya\u00a0Seneviratne was part of a three member committee appointed by Kabir\u00a0Hashim to review the former Government\u2019s highway projects. The other\u00a0members were Faiz Mohideen and M.B.S. Fernando.<\/p>\n

The committee after reviewing the projects had noted that the cost of\u00a0several projects were highly inflated and had recommended their\u00a0continuation on a smaller scale. The Committee had pointed out that\u00a0the cost of the OCH3 was at least 50% higher than the price based on\u00a0rates for the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway.<\/p>\n

The committee presenting their findings had said that the OCH project\u00a0was awarded to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) on an\u00a0unsolicited proposal.\u00a0When Colombo Telegraph<\/em> contacted Seneviratne for his views on\u00a0the new developments with regard to road construction and the reason\u00a0for his sacking, the former secretary refused to comment on both\u00a0issues.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile media reports said that Seneviratne was removed from his\u00a0position after the Minister Hashim and Deputy Minister Eran\u00a0Wickremaratne<\/span><\/a> had found that the Secretary was responsible for some\u00a0serious blunders.<\/p>\n

It was reported that Seneviratne may have been involved in inserting a\u00a0Cabinet paper on an unsolicited proposal for a monorail project in\u00a0Colombo in to the Ministry dossier to be presented at the weekly\u00a0Cabinet meeting without the knowledge of the Minister or the Deputy\u00a0Minister. Interestingly, the Cabinet paper had been prepared when\u00a0former President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> was in power.<\/p>\n

On August 03, construction work on the first phase of the Central\u00a0Expressway from Colombo to Kandy was launched by Ranil Wickremesinghe\u00a0at Kadawatha.\u00a0The first stage of the Expressway will be constructed from Kadawatha\u00a0to Meerigama. The 2nd stage of the expressway will be constructed from\u00a0Mirigama to Kurunegala and under the third stage it will be\u00a0constructed from Kurunegala to Kandy. Constructions will also be\u00a0carried out from Kurunegala to Dambulla as well. The total distance of\u00a0the expressway is 98km.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the event the Premier said<\/span><\/a> that the government had awarded\u00a0the contract to Metallurgical Corporation of China as the company had\u00a0agreed to construct the road at a cost which is 50 per cent lower than\u00a0previous estimate.\u00a0Soon after this the UPFA convened a press briefing and said that only\u00a0the estimated price has been changed with regard to the construction\u00a0of the expressway but the company and the bank had not been changed.\u00a0Former Minister Dilan Perera said that the Prime Minister had put\u00a0forward the new cabinet paper instead of an old cabinet paper\u00a0submitted by the Ministry of Highways.\u00a0Perera went on to say that Wickremasinghe had pilfered over Rs. 50\u00a0billion though the new cabinet paper put forward by him with respect\u00a0to the Kandy-Colombo expressway project. However Perera did not\u00a0elaborate on how the premier had done this deed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile when contacted the Metallurgical Corporation of China\u00a0rejected claims that it was involved in inflating costs in relation to\u00a0any project.\u00a0A spokesman for MCC said the company was one of the top ten global\u00a0firms and has completed contracts all over the world with high\u00a0professionalism and quality.\u00a0The spokesman said that it was unrealistic to compare the costs of the\u00a0OCH project with that of Colombo Katunayake Expressway as there were\u00a0different geographical conditions involved and different requirements.\u00a0He said that the EXIM Bank had provided the loan after a detailed\u00a0evaluation.<\/p>\n

The contradictory details presented by various stakeholders related to\u00a0the above project raises more questions than answers. More details\u00a0which will shed new light on the above issue will be revealed in this\u00a0website in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":148462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,6980,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-sri-lanka-parliamentary-elections-2015","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nRanil Awarding Expressway Contract To Controversial MCC Raises Questions - 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\/ranil-awarding-expressway-contract-to-controversial-mcc-raises-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ranil Awarding Expressway Contract To Controversial MCC Raises Questions - 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