Treasury Secy unfolds MCC Agreement woes

7 November 2019 12:07 am

• Either party may terminate this pact by giving the other party 30 days prior written notice
• Programme consists of transport and land projects

 

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

Fabrications, misinterpretations and absolute lies spread surrounding MCC compact could prevent Sri Lanka receiving US$ 480 million (Rs.86 billion) and if that happened not the US but Sri Lanka would suffer badly, Treasury Secretary Dr.R.H.S.Samaratunga said yesterday.    

Dr. Samaratunga told Daily Mirror that he has read and watched the negative comments and views expressed by politicians on the MCC compact.   
“Almost all of them were unfounded, illogical and had been made with malicious and politically motivated intentions,” he added.   

 

•  “The MCC compact is a grant from the US Government and not a loan and therefore Sri Lanka must not repay it. But it is US taxpayers’ money. Therefore, the US must have a thorough understanding as to how Sri Lanka is going to spend this money for the welfare of the people of Sri Lanka. For this purpose, an institution by the Sri Lanka government must be setup like the Mahaweli Development Board or Gal-Oya Development Board to manage the project expenses implemented with the MCC compact. The agreement is meant for that purpose,” Dr. Samaratunga stressed.   

 

•  “Either party may terminate this compact agreement without cause in its entirety by giving the other party thirty (30) days prior written notice”(Section 5.1). He said he was not aware of any move to sell an acre of land to the US for Rs.180, giving away lands in Sri Lanka to the US to set up military camps or confronting the national security as portrayed by certain politicians.    

“I appeal to all those who are interested in the MCC compact to go through the agreement to be signed between the two countries which the Finance Ministry has released,” he said.   

 

•  “The programme consists of two projects design to respond to constraints to economic growth in Sri Lanka – The Transport Project and the Land Project. The projects are designed to support two sectors that are critical for Sri Lanka to continue to make progress towards greater economic growth and poverty reduction. My simple question is that who does not want this offer from the US done in an extremely magnanimous and benevolent attitude towards to the people of Sri Lanka,” Samaratunga asked.   

 

•  This is what the government expects to do using the capital provided by the MCC compact: “Many of the property records in the deeds system are still in paper form and poorly maintained, making the records vulnerable to theft, fire, alteration and fraud in property transactions. To address these issues MCC funding shall support efforts to scan and digitize these paper records, capturing key legal rights and land parcel identification data for inclusion in the eLand Registry that includes sex disaggregated data base. Once the deeds records are digitized they would be linked to the digital parcel fabric map to provide the special context, Dr. Samaratunga stressed.   

The Land Grants Registration and Deed Conversion activity supports two interventions that relate to the title registration system in the target district.