{"id":183943,"date":"2017-11-09T09:12:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T03:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=183943"},"modified":"2017-11-13T21:46:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T16:16:27","slug":"minister-ravinda-samaraweera-implicates-himself-and-thalatha-athukorale-in-tender-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/minister-ravinda-samaraweera-implicates-himself-and-thalatha-athukorale-in-tender-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Ravinda Samaraweera Implicates Himself And Thalatha Athukorale In Tender Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-p2\"><span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-s1\">State Minister of Labour and Trade, Ravindra Samaraweera, was caught red-handed in a clear indication that he intended to circumvent established tender procedures.\u00a0<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-p2\"><span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-s1\">Samaraweera was caught on camera and microphone yesterday during a press briefing when he answered a call on his mobile phone and told the caller to speak with the relevant secretary of the minister.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-p2\"><span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-s1\">\u201cOk, Shakya, I have spoken with the\u00a0<i>amathithumiya<\/i>\u00a0(female minister) and it has been put on hold.<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>[She] told me to ask you to submit a tender as soon as possible.<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Yes, yes, she has already spoken [arranged it].<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>She has a secretary named Indrajith Wijesuriya. Meet him and submit your tender immediately. Go to her ministry.<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The Ministry of Foreign Employment.<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Go meet Indrajith Wijesuriya and give me a call, ok?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-p2\"><span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-s1\">The minister mentioned is therefore clearly Thalatha Athukorale.<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Samaraweera appears to have come to some kind of agreement with Athukorale regarding bringing to bear undue and illegal influence on the tender process.\u00a0<span class=\"m_8245326332698843552gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We publish below the relevant telephone conversation broadcast by MTV though the editorial comment of the news station erroneously says the tender has been put on hold but the minister has clearly stated that this tender has been called.\u00a0<span class=\"m_8820943150826903009gmail-s1\"><strong><em>(By Renuka Jayasinghe)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><span class=\"m_6701528344021404942gmail-Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNewsfirstSL%2Fvideos%2F1726445657415685%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":183946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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