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Dayasiri goes to CIABOC over fuel deal

04 Nov 2022

  • Plans to respond to Kanchana’s Rs. 1 bn letter of demand today 
BY Safrah Fazal Sri Lanka Freedom Party General Secretary MP Dayasiri Jayasekara lodged a complaint on Wednesday (2) at the Commission to Investigate into Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) pertaining to alleged malpractices in fuel procurement, and will also be responding today (4) to the Letter of Demand (LOD) sent to him by Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (3), Jayasekara said that although it is the responsibility of the subject minister to look into the malpractices in the procurement of fuel, he had taken the initiative to ensure that an investigation is done in this regard.  “Wijesekera should have launched an investigation into this before I went to the CIABOC. Instead, he personally sent me a LOD of Rs. 1 billion, stating that my speaking about this constitutes defamation against him. I am ready to face him in court. I am also going to send him a response to it too. I am preparing it now, and will send it to him on 4 November (today).”  When The Morning queried as to whether he had particularly mentioned Wijesekera’s name during his revelations of fuel procurement related irregularities, he said: “I did not mention his name. All I said was politicians and certain officials.” He further stressed that in the face of such allegations, Wijesekera’s response should have been to the effect that he is not involved in the procurement and that he would launch an investigation.  “What he should have said was that he wasn’t involved in this process and that there is a procurement committee and that he will look into it. That’s what he should have said, but that’s not what happened as he went on to send me a LOD.” Speaking to the media after lodging his complaint at the CIABOC, Jayasekara alleged that Ural crude oil had been imported at the price of Murban crude oil, which costs $ 25-30 more.  “Ural has been imported at the price of Murban. There is a price difference of about $ 25-30 between these two oils. As we already know, due to the US dollar crisis, Wijesekera obtained the approval of the Cabinet to import fuel without a tender procedure. Through this, we can prove that there have been several occasions where they have procured Ural for the price of Murban. We know that the premium is less than  $ 5 per barrel, but they have paid  $ 25-30. There is a great concern as to why they agreed to pay this amount. Along with this issue, we submitted a number of other matters for the CIABOC to also look into.” Speaking further, he also claimed that fuel that was imported for the Sapugaskanda Refinery was also of low quality or unsuitable.  “Concerning the crude oil that was imported for the refinery, there is a decrease in the diesel and petrol that is refined, but an increase in furnace oil. This implies that the crude oil is either of low quality or not suited for the refinery. We have spoken about this at length in Parliament and in media briefings.” Meanwhile, an official from the Ministry of Power and Energy stated that Minister Wijesekera and the Ministry will respond to the complaint in due course. Last month, Jayasekara stated that a massive fraud had taken place involving politicians and officials in the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s (CPC) procurement of crude oil. In response, the CPC issued a letter stating that Jayasekara’s statements were false, and also stated that action will be taken against him.


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