Pay up the Rs. 20b loss to the country Mr. Minister!

The Finance Minister and the Cabinet approved the removal and transfer of the Director General of Customs P.S.M. Charles at a Cabinet meeting.

During the week, there were widespread protests by the Customs Union and others over the unfair and illegal transfer of this senior Administrative officer who had performed her duties sans political interference.

As reported in the media, she was called up to transfer Customs Investigating Officers who had detected pepper, beedi leaves and ethanol which had arrived in containers for re-export by falsely declaring them as readymade garments etc.

The Ministry of Finance replaced her with a retired Naval Officer and subsequently an officer from the Ministry of Finance was appointed. This sparked a go- slow -- over 6,000 conainers could not be cleared by importers.

The loss to the country has been estimated as Rs 20 billion and now the Minister gets back on his decision and recommends reinstatement at the next Cabinet meeting. This clearly shows his decision was politically motivated, and there was no substantive reason for the removal of the Customs chief.

The country demands Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the Cabinet who endorsed the decision to remove her to reimburse Rs 20 billion to the government Ex-Chequer. S.D. Vincent Dehiwela