By Maheesha Mudugamuwa While preparations are being made to shift the office space of the Ministry of Agriculture, currently located at a luxury private building in Rajagiriya, to its former office “Govijana Mandiraya” in Battaramulla, The Sunday Morning learnt last week that officials had been instructed to explore the possibility of renegotiating the agreements with the private party. Furthermore, the Minister of Agriculture had also directed officials to try and obtain a refund of the rent for the building already paid in advance until March next year. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ministry of Agriculture Secretary Neel Bandara Hapuhinna said the entire shifting process would be completed by the end of this month; relocation back to the previous building. Last December, the Cabinet had approved the proposal presented by Minister of Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation, and Rural Development Chamal Rajapaksa to re-establish the Ministry of Agriculture and other institutions implemented under the Ministry in the Govijana Mandiraya. In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture was moved to its current housing at a privately owned building for a monthly rent of Rs. 24.5 million. However, the controversy caused by the payment of such a large sum of money was also investigated by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), probing allegations of corruption and misappropriation in state institutions. Rent already paid Elaborating on the shifting process, Co-ordinating Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture Pradeep Paranagama told The Sunday Morning that the Government had already paid the lease amount for the respective building up until 21 March 2021 and the Minister has instructed the officials to examine the possibility of the agreement being renegotiated and the advance payment being refunded. “There are 26 institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture, out of which the Department of Rural Development was located at a private office premises where the Department was paying a rent of Rs. 9 million per month,” he stressed. Therefore, it was Minister Chamal Rajapaksa’s concern to not waste money and to instead get all the institutions under one roof as much as possible by shifting it (the Ministry) to the old premises, Paranagama noted. However, according to Paranagama, since the Government had already paid the lease amount, there was no obstruction for them to use the building. But the Minister had taken the decision considering the additional payments the other institutions were making monthly. Explaining about the shifting process, he said that the old building had been kept closed for some time and therefore there were several renovations going on that are to be completed within this month, adding that once the renovations are done, the Ministry’s office complex will be shifted back to the previous place. A problem since last regime The purchasing of a new office complex in Rajagiriya for the Ministry of Agriculture had been in the limelight during the tenure of the previous Government while MP Duminda Dissanayake was the then Minister of Agriculture. Questions were raised by various politicians, especially from the then Opposition, about the rent. According to the Annual Report of the Auditor General in 2016, the nine-storeyed building located in Rajagiriya had been obtained on a lease basis from an external person following a decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers on 27 September 2015 (No. 15/130/702/007) to use the building of the Govijana Mandiraya for reformation purposes of the Parliament Committee System and to obtain extra office space. The report, however, noted that the two floors of this building had been constructed without the approval of the Urban Development Authority (UDA), utilising a total sum of Rs. 872.64 million, including a sum of Rs. 315 million as rentals from the institute due to failure in carrying out proper technical evaluation and implementing a sound procurement process. Furthermore, it has been mentioned that adequate steps had not been taken in this regard and the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) valued at Rs. 15.22 million, which was purchased to keep the laboratory fully air-conditioned, had remained idle even by 30 June 2017. Meanwhile, last year it was also revealed that the PCoI probing into corruption in the previous Government had found out that the building in Rajagiriya was obtained for the Ministry of Agriculture without the approval of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) or the Auditor General. As it was reported, Ministry of Agriculture Chief Accountant Niluka Jayasinghe testified, noting the building was obtained after securing Cabinet approval. She testified before the PCoI, highlighting the fact that the Cabinet paper for the building was presented by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. It was further revealed that a sum of Rs. 466 million was spent on purchasing furniture and other equipment for the building.