Sri Lanka Public Utilities Commission Chairman said in the COPE committee that the statement made by him saying that petrol and diesel can be sold at a price of approximately Rs. 250 was a personal statement.
Mr. Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Public Utilities Commission, said that he noticed this while consulting the data.
He stated this when the Committee on Public Enterprises met in Parliament yesterday (06) under the chairmanship of its Chairman Member of Parliament (Professor) Mr. Charitha Herath to examine the reports of the Auditor General and the current performance of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka for the years 2018 and 2019.
Explaining this further, Mr. Rathnayake mentioned that this is revealed when checking the statistics on the import prices of petroleum and the taxes levied by the government. Accordingly, he pointed out that petrol and diesel can be sold in Sri Lanka at Rs. 200 less than the current price. According to this, petrol and diesel can be sold in Sri Lanka at a price of approximately Rs. 250. He also said that the government collected a tax of Rs. 280 for one liter of diesel imported on July 1st.
He said that this is his personal statement and he is making the statement after consulting the data. Accordingly, the members present asked about the awareness of the officials of the commission and the officials of the board of directors said that the board of directors of this commission is not aware of it. It was also mentioned here that the Ministry of Finance has not formally informed about this.
The present members asked Mr. Ratnayake about his qualifications to become the chairman of this commission. Accordingly, he pointed out that as his educational qualifications, he has obtained a special degree in public administration from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and a post-graduate degree in business administration from the University of Colombo. He also said that he has also studied at Harvard University. He also stated that since 2005, he has greatly supported building governments with the Rajapaksha family as his political qualification.
Here, the Chairman of the COPE Committee mentioned that the statement made by this Chairman regarding the price of fuel is more serious and the attention of the country is being drawn to this. Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy and the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission are expected to be brought in to check on the matter in the future.
Also, the Sri Lanka Public Utilities Commission discussed at length on the purchase of a Benz model car manufactured in 2005 from a company called General Business (Private) Ltd on a monthly rental basis without fuel or driver for a period of one year from December 07, 2021. it was. Thus, the annual rent for this vehicle was Rs. 4,500,000 and on 31 May 2022, Rs. 2,187,500 had been paid to the mentioned institution. However, the COPE Committee questioned the facts that the files regarding the acquisition of this vehicle were not submitted for audit, giving recommendations to acquire a 15-year-old vehicle, as well as the irregularities in calling for bids for the acquisition of this vehicle, and the existence of transparency problems in the payment of rent for this vehicle. In particular, the COPE Committee instructed the officer who signed the approval to provide money for this institution to act responsibly.
Accordingly, the Chairman of the COPE Committee recommended that an investigation be conducted and a full report be submitted to the COPE Committee.
COPE committee also discussed that the organizational structure and salary structure of the Public Utilities Commission should be done under the recommendations of the National Pay and Staffing Commission and the approval of the Department of Management Services. Moreover, although the Minister of Finance has informed that an amendment should be submitted to the Cabinet and approved by the end of 2021 it was discussed why it was not done and expended money on other tasks. In particular, The COPE Committee also paid more attention to the fact that Rs. 45,873,483 have been paid to the staff of the institution under 11 types of allowances and Rs. 86,808,538 i.e. 49% of the total cost of the entire mission was spent on public awareness programs.
It was also discussed not being given the transmission summary, actual system distribution and daily distribution schedule to be provided by the Ceylon Electricity Board on a daily basis to advise the government through monitoring the performance, trends, changes in demand, etc. in the electricity sector and to take the necessary measures for regulation, from May 2018 to December 2019.
In particular, attention was drawn to the electricity generation plan approved for the years 2018-2037 and the officials present mentioned that data on another new generation plan was submitted in the year 2021 and was not approved as it did not meet the appropriate requirements. Here, the COPE Committee mentioned that when the political authorities change, problems arise due to the change of these plans, so all parties should pay more attention to this.
Furthermore, under the Electricity (Distribution) Performance Standards Orders mentioned in a special gazette notice issued in 2016, the commission was assigned the responsibility of preparing and implementing the performance rules. Thus, the work that should be implemented within 36 months after the decree came into effect, although almost 4 years have passed, the committee drew attention to the fact that even the adaptation phase, which was planned to be completed in 2018, has not been completed so far. The officials who were present in the meeting mentioned that this was planned to be done in 3 phases in 3 years and that it has not happened yet due to the need to change the system and the problems in the relationship between the parties involved.
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, MPs Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Indika Anuruddha, (Dr.) Harsha de Silva, (Dr.) Nalaka Godaheva, Jayantha Samaraweera, Premnath C. Dolawatta, and Madhura Withanage participated as committee members in this committee meeting. Also, several members who are not members of the committee also participated with the permission of the chairman of the committee.
