Despite President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructing the President's Secretary Saman Ekanayake to look into the matter of the Attorney General's (AG) Department not attending sessions of the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development regarding the recovery of compensation for the damage caused by the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster, the latter is still not attending, claimed the Committee's Chairperson Ajith Mannapperuma.
Mannapperuma had recently reached out to Wickremesinghe, seeking the latter's intervention to direct the AG's Department to assist the Committee's affairs in relation to the MV X-Press Pearl incident. He (Wickremesinghe) had then directed Ekanayake to look into the matter and take appropriate measures.
Responding to a query by The Daily Morning as to whether the AG's Department had assisted the Committee following the President's intervention, Mannapperuma claimed that the situation remains the same. "They (AG's Department) still don’t assist us, saying that there are legal proceedings regarding this incident."
It was earlier reported that the officials of the AG's Department were called before the Committee to inquire about the current situation related to the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster, but that they were refraining from appearing before it, saying that related cases are currently before courts. As a result of their refusal, the Committee stated that it is not possible to get proper information about the incident, particularly the related compensation process.
Attempts to contact the AG, or another relevant official proved futile.
On 20 May 2021, the MV X-Press Pearl caught fire off the coast of Colombo. The vessel was engulfed in flames by 27 May and declared a total loss. It was still afloat, and the fire was thought to be under control by Sri Lankan firefighters by the late hours of 27 May 2021. After burning for 12 days, the vessel sank on 2 June as it was being towed away to deeper waters. The incident was deemed the worst marine ecological disaster in Sri Lankan history for the chemical products that spilled.