Power, Lies and Corruption

Irefer to the article under the above heading that appeared in the Daily Mirror of 5th August. As a person who has served in the CEB and its predecessor the DGEU, for nearly 40 years, I would like to make a few clarifications and corrections with regard to some of the statements made by the Ministry Secretary, a politician and a few consumers.

The Ministry Secretary says, inter alia. “There might be corruption in buying materials which cost around 5 to 6 billion annually. There may be 10% to 15% corruption. etc. etc.” “There might be” and “there may be" are very loose statements, and if the Secretary had any proof, as a responsible officer he should have reported these matters to the Bribery Commision or for inquiry by the CID. I am not privy to what happened in the CEB after January 2000, so what the Secretary says may or may not be true.

With regard to the alleged corruption of 5 to 6 billion in buying materials, I can proudly say that during my tenure as Vice Chairman for 5 years from 1995 to January 2000 I was Chairman of the CEB Tender Board and during this period our Tender Board handled over 4000 million rupees worth of tenders and there wasn’t any allegation of corruption or manipulation in the award of a single tender.

I must say over 90 per cent of the present financial problems in the CEB are due to wrong decisions, delayed decisions and monumental decisions being taken regarding installation of Private Power Plants etc. by persons appointed outside the CEB.

At present consumers are paying through their noses while Private Power Plant owners are making huge profits, but that is another story which I hope to relate later. Being an octogenarian, I hope I will live long enough to record some of these things to posterity.

Neil Perera ( Former Vice Chairman C.E.B.)