1 March 2016 05:20 pm
Matara District MP Kanchana Wijesekera said the harbour located on some 20 acres of land had been rented out for Rs.125,000 monthly to a private company named, 'Sea Gulf UK.’
“This company was registered only in August, 2014 and with the harbour leased out in October on an order of the then Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne. As soon as the company had taken over the operations, it had dismissed the previous employees and had replaced them with employees of a private company,” he told a news conference held at the Dr. N.M. Perera Centre in Borella.
Mr. Wijesekera said now the authorities had realized that the habour had been leased out for a lesser amount and were making arrangements to charge a monthly rental of Rs.450,000 from the company.
“The minister was vociferous about ‘corrupt’ deals of the Rajapaksa government and used these deals as one of their key slogans at the election campaign. He behaved as if he had nothing to do with any such deal but today it’s clear that he too was involved in corrupt deals,” he said.
Mr. Wijesekera said they had no faith in the Bribery Commission or the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) and that was why they would complain to the Police Commission.
He said the MPs of the joint opposition would soon visit the Modera fisheries harbour to inspect the site once a date was fixed. (Lahiru Pothmulla)