Govt. MP who chairs COPE accused of attempting to suppress probe on coal fraud: Opposition MP

• Says CEB will incur an extra Rs. 20Bn on power generation as a result of the coal procurement scam

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana 

In what appears to be a serious allegation, Opposition MP Dayasiri Jayasekera yesterday told Parliament that Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman Nishantha Samaraweera attempted to inflict undue influence on the Auditor General during the probe into the report on inferior quality coal. 

“The COPE chief inflicted undue influence on the Auditor General during a Zoom meeting. No MP who headed COPE had influenced the Auditor General in the past,” the MP said during the debate on the no-confidence motion against Minister of Power and Energy Kumara Jayakody. 

He said the CEB will have to spend an extra Rs. 20 billion on power generation as a result of the coal procurement scam. He added that this burden would be passed on to electricity consumers. 

MP D. V. Chanaka said there will be no way of claiming compensation from the coal supplier, as the umpire sample tests of coal have been allowed to expire. “All four umpire sample tests have expired as of today,” he said. 

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, responding, said the opposition should prove its allegations. “There is no point in uttering things without proving the allegations,” she said. 

Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala said his party would not allow the opposition to make accusations if anyone in the government is found to be engaged in corruption. “We will remove anyone from his position if he or she is found to have been engaged in corruption. We have removed popular members in our party in the past when they were found to be engaged in corruption,” he said.