He played Santa Claus with public funds

8 December 2015 06:30 pm

Our hero in this story is a Diyawanna member with the gift of the gab. He held a very high position in a provincial body before being elected to the Diyawanna.


The government had released more than Rs.40 million to this particular provincial body on the eve of the January 8 big poll. Instead of utilizing the funding for development purposes, the politico had used the monies for the purchase of refrigerators, buffet sets and plastic chairs for distribution among his voters.
Meanwhile, the new top brass of this provincial body claims that only a handful of voters had received these ‘gifts’ from their previous provincial boss. What is worse, no tender procedure had been observed for the purchase of the gift items.

This politico, now accused of criminal abuse of public funds for political gain, however, is a vociferous champion of social justice and fair play, they say. 
By the way, the authorities of the provincial body concerned have decided to file a complaint against the politico with a Police unit tasked with probing financial crimes in the public sector.