COPE slams CIDA for harassing staff, spending Rs. 15Mn on Court Case

16 October 2025 10:02 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 2 Bookmark

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By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

Colombo, Oct. 16 (Daily Mirror) - The Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) has found fault with the Construction Industries Development Authority (CIDA) for harassing workers on personal grounds and for incurring exorbitant expenses for lawyers appearing in a court case filed against an employee attached to the institution.

It was revealed during the COPE meeting that CIDA has spent Rs 15 million on the court case. Also, it was revealed that a sum of Rs 600,000 has been paid to the lawyer for each trial date.

The said employee has been reinstated following an order made by the court, but CIDA has appealed against the verdict.

Also, it was revealed that it has been planned to spend Rs 5.9 million for the renovation of the roof of the building where CIDA is located. CIDA has failed to check the quotation from a contractor within the organisation.

MPs Dayasiri Jayasekera, Sujeewa Senasinghe, Samanmalee Gunasinghe, Sunil Rajapaksa, Sudath Balagalla, Chandima Hettiarachchi, Tilina Samarakoon, Dharamapriya Wijesinghe, Dinesh Hemantha and Lakmali Hemachandra were present at the COPE meeting.

Comments - 2

Ram P Friday, 17 October 2025 03:18 AM

Government institutions paying very high or exorbitant fees to private lawyers is no secret. Few decades back it was a topic of discussion when the Insurance Corporation paid very high fees to private lawyers and the issue was highlighted in the papers with the names of lawyers and the fees paid. This is how respective governments swindled our money

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Lontha Paul Friday, 17 October 2025 09:29 AM

Arbitrators are the biggest thugs and crooks in the industry where these lawyers scoop money to the bones and drag the whole process up to 5 years. Never sign a contract where any dispute is first referred to an arbitrator panel.

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