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COPE stands strong

01 Sep 2019

  • Secretary says will appear at next COPE hearing
  • Power Ministry reiterates need for emergency power
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa Ministry of Power and Energy Secretary Dr. Suren Batagoda came under strong criticism for failing to appear before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) recently. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) trade unions alleged that Dr. Batagoda evaded COPE proceedings as he would have had to expose, on behalf of the former and present governments, all illegal and corrupt deals made within. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Lanka Viduli Sevaka Sangamaya (LVSS) Convener Ranjan Jayalal alleged that corrupt tenders and other deals the CEB and the Ministry had allegedly been involved in would have had to be revealed before the COPE had Dr. Batagoda appeared, adding that he might not want to take full responsibility of such deals since a number of politicians were also allegedly involved in them. At the last proceedings, the COPE summoned the relevant officials of the Ministry of Power and Energy, including present Secretary Dr. Batagoda, to inquire into emergency power purchase and many other transactions that took place in the recent past. However, despite summons by COPE, the Secretary did not appear for the proceedings, resulting in the Acting Secretary participating on his behalf. Ministry of Power and Energy Acting Secretary Indrani Vithanage was appointed to the position by the Secretary to the President with effect from 23 August – the same day the proceedings were held. During the COPE proceedings, when its Chairman, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Sunil Handunnetti questioned Vithanage, she stated that she could not provide exact answers on the matters due to her very recent appointment. Explaining the gravity of the issue, Handunnetti stressed that there were certain proposals into which Dr. Batagoda himself had intervened, more than the CEB itself. Even though the officials of the CEB were summoned for matters such as the power generation plans or the purchase of power at exorbitant prices, it does not completely fall under the purview of the CEB. However, since Acting Secretary Vithanage was unable to answer the questions raised by the COPE Chairman, the hearing was postponed to 8 October. Not officially informed When questioned, Ministry of Power and Energy Director – Development and Spokesperson Sulakshana Jayawardene told The Sunday Morning that Dr. Batagoda was currently overseas and would be back on 8 September, adding: “Dr. Batagoda had earlier informed COPE that he wouldn’t be able to appear for the hearing on 23 August.” When asked whether he was on an official visit, Jayawardena said that the Secretary was currently on leave as he was attending to a family matter. When The Sunday Morning asked COPE Chairman Handunnetti whether Dr. Batagoda informed the committee of his inability to participate in the hearings scheduled for 23 August, Handunnetti acknowledged that the Secretary had done so. “When he was summoned for the hearings on LECO (Lanka Electricity Company), he told me that he wouldn’t be able to come on 23 August, but he had not officially informed the committee through a letter requesting the postponement of the proceedings,” he added. “We can’t postpone proceedings on a verbal request made by an official – for that, he should have informed COPE and requested another date,” Handunnetti said, adding that when the matters were taken up on 23 August, COPE had to postpone the meeting as the newly appointed Acting Secretary was unaware about the matters and not because of the Secretary’s absence. According to him, the Ministry officials were informed to appear before the COPE on 19 July. During the proceedings, COPE member and United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Dayasiri Jayasekara also stressed that the Secretary should be summoned as soon as possible as there were major issues to be discussed. As reported, the matters scheduled to be taken up before the committee included the purchase of diesel power generators with a capacity of generating one megawatt of power for a cost of Rs. 3 billion, emergency power purchasing contrary to the Electricity Act, the delay in implementing the long-term power generation plan, purchasing emergency power for an exorbitant cost of Rs. 32 billion, expenditure amounting to Rs. 3 billion illegally incurred within the institution, irregularities that took place when purchasing coal, evading payments to consumers contrary to the Electricity Act, and losses amounting to Rs. 87 billion suffered between 2016 and 2019. However, the unions alleged that the Secretary left the country to escape COPE proceedings. “All relevant authorities and political leadership during the last decade should take the responsibility for the losses incurred by the CEB,” LVSS Convener Jayalal said. No need to escape Responding to the allegations levelled against him, Dr. Batagoda said: “I personally informed COPE Chairman MP Handunnetti that I was unable to come on 23 August. CEB Chairman Rakitha Jayawardena and I personally met MP Handunnetti and COPE Secretary and requested for a different date since I was planning to take leave. President Maithripala Sirisena also approved my leave and he appointed Vithanage as Acting Secretary.” He told The Sunday Morning that he had four or five preparatory meetings before he left, to which he assigned separate officers for every issue that needed answers. The Acting Secretary had also been well guided on all issues due to his absence, he said. “This is the first time in my 35 years of service that I had to request for leave for a personal matter. During the last 35 years, I’ve never taken leave or a private holiday. I took this leave for my family. I’ve never attended my children’s parent-teacher meetings. Now, I’m retiring in a few months and I need to spend time with my family, and that’s why I requested COPE to change the date. They told me they cannot change the date and instead asked me to change the date. However, for me to change the date, I must make a request to the President, but if I did that, I would have missed my last important family event before my retirement in a few months,” he noted. He further stated that he had a COPE meeting a few days ago, prior to the COPE proceeding he was unable to attend, with regard to LECO. LECO is also a part of the CEB. At that meeting, Dr. Batagoda said, many issues on the CEB were discussed, and he had informed them that he would be on leave and wouldn’t be able to attend the next week’s COPE meeting. “Why should I try to escape COPE? I have attended hundreds of COPE meetings including the one I attended three weeks ago,” Dr. Batagoda averred. He also noted that he would participate in the COPE proceedings on 8 October. Emergency not ruled out Meanwhile, questions were also raised about the necessity of purchasing emergency power and the inability of the Ministry to implement low-cost power plants to solve the country’s power issue. Highlighting the emergency requirement, Jayalal said that the requirement could be interpreted by different people based on their requirements, and as of now, the officials were talking about purchasing emergency power and not about building power plants. “Five years after this day, we will be discussing the same topic on why the Ministry is not taking proper action to solve the power crisis,” Jayalal stressed. When The Sunday Morning queried about the emergency power necessity at present, Ministry Spokesperson Jayawardena noted that the water levels of the hydropower reservoirs were still not up to the expected levels and therefore, there still was a power shortage. However, highlighting the Ministry’s plan to purchase barge-mounted power until the LNG (liquid natural gas) power plants were commissioned, he said the approvals from the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) and the Attorney General’s (AG) Department were yet to be received. When asked about the purchase of barge-mounted power from a Turkish company, Jayawardena said the CEB sent the necessary documents requested by the AG’s Department for the purchase of barge-mounted power from the Turkish company as well as for the open tender to purchase emergency power. A few weeks ago, when The Sunday Morning contacted Secretary Dr. Batagoda, he stressed that, at present, there was no power shortage and the system was running on 100 MW of emergency power which the CEB bought for six months. He said even though there was no shortage as of now, the system was running on a margin where the need for emergency power would materialise at any time if there was any issue in the system or a plant. “In addition, we have gas engines which we usually use to meet the demand during peak hours (from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.) on a daily basis, when the demand suddenly increased by 300 MW,” he said, adding that the cost of a unit of electricity from gas engines was around Rs. 45-50 and those engines were running 24 hours a day due to the crisis. Also, hydropower generation was at its lowest this year. “Usually, in years with relatively low rainfall in hydropower reservoirs, the CEB could generate around 3,000-5,000 GWh. But as of now, total hydropower generation was at 1,300 GWh, which is the lowest recorded,” Dr. Batagoda said.

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