Cancellation of lease: Hashim says not officially informed

Public Enterprises Minister Kabir Hashim told Parliament on Friday that he was not officially informed about the cancellation of the lease by SriLankan airlines.

He said this in response to a question asked by MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage who pointed out that the cancellation had been done without the knowledge of the minister.

"Mr. Aluthgamage's statement is not factually correct as I was not officially informed. I knew that negotiations were going on to cancel the deal," the minister said and added that the cancellation was correct as it was going to cause heavy losses to the government.

Mr Aluthgamage said the President had directed that a cabinet paper be submitted by the subject minister and not by anyone else.

"Today, Cabinet papers are prepared at Temple Trees," he said.

Mr. Hashim said such things only happened during the previous regime. "The ministers were virtually silenced at that time," he said adding that the President's directive was for subject ministers to be involved in submitting Cabinet proposals. (Yohan Perera)