Presidential Secretariat clarifies renovation charges

7 October 2015 01:37 pm

The Presidential Secretariat in a communiqué on reports regarding the Rs.180 million requested to repair the new President’s residence said the building had to be renovated by merging two old houses so as to be made suitable for the use of a President.

It said garages and living quarters used by the President and the security personnel at the residence had also to be renovated and that the re-construction was carried out by the State-owned Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB).

The Presidential Secretariat said President Maithripala Sirisena had refused to use the President’s House in Fort because of the exorbitant cost of maintenance and added that it would have cost the State coffers Rs.15 million for water, electricity and maintenance in the event that building was used for residential purposes per month.

Referring to the BMW cars and motorcycles, which were mentioned in today’s newspapers, it said those vehicles had been purchased by the previous government.

The Presidential Secretariat said the BMW cars had arrived in the Colombo Port on January 8 while the BMW motorcycles had arrived on February 21 and that they were taken over by the government because the vehicles could not be re-exported and the freight charges themselves would have been huge.
The Full Statement