Even standard practices portrayed as abuse: MR
The office of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday rejected the allegation levelled against the Rajapaksa government on the road constructions and said that even standard practices in the construction industry were portrayed as instances of abuse by the previous government.
At a press conference last Thursday (2), Minister Kabir Hashim made certain allegations about several infrastructure projects initiated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government.
“While the government is engaged in this exercise of vilifying their predecessors with dubious accusations, the development work that was started by the previous government has grounded to a halt.
Thousands of people are losing their jobs and are not in a position even to celebrate the New Year. We believe the present government should look to the future, instead of wasting time concocting various stories about the past,” the former President’s office said.
It also said that infrastructure projects were costly and complicated and it was always possible to make various allegations that may seem plausible to the general public who have no awareness of the complexities involved.
“All costs associated with large projects are scrutinised by technical evaluation committees and cabinet appointed tender boards and everything has to finally get Cabinet-approval. Our fear is that given the absurd lengths to which the present government is taking this campaign of misinformation, a prejudice against all development projects may be created in the minds of the public - which will finally be to the detriment of future generations in this country,” it said.
Giving details of answers for Minister Hashim’s allegation, the statement also stated that Minister Hashim characterised those instances as evidence of large-scale corruption.
“Though minister Hashim says that the average cost of a two-lane highway in the year 2010 was Rs. 75 million per km, road projects are not generic products like sugar or dhal which can have an average world market price. Every road project is unique and the cost will differ due to various factors. Building a highway elevated on columns across marshy land will increase costs. The levelling of hills, blasting through rock, filling in of marshy or low -ying land, the building of bridges and culverts, the width of the road and the number of lanes, the cost of acquiring land etcetera increases or decreases the cost by large amounts,” it added.