Fired CPC chairman sent to the ‘Pool’
Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's (CPC) former acting Chairman Wasantha Ekanayake who was sacked from his post for asking CPC debtors to 'pay up or stop credit' has been transferred to the 'pool' without any responsibilities, the Sunday
learns. Mr. Ekanayake was a one-time Deputy Director of Finance at the Ministry of Finance and a Treasury representative on the CPC board.
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Continued from Page 1 Debts totalling Rs. 12 billion and a loss known to exceed Rs. 200 billion this year prompted Mr. Ekanayake, to direct state agencies to settle their dues with the CPC.
“He did what any right-thinking and competent official would do – cut losses, so that the burden does not fall on the people. And he paid a huge price for doing what any official is expected to do,” said a trade union official, who declined to be named.
Mr. Ekanayake, who was appointed after the removal of businessman Harry Jayawardene on ministerial allegations that he interfered in tenders, wrote letters to Srilankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka, which together owe nearly Rs. 18 billion, requesting payment. He had said credit-based supply would be stopped, if payments were not made.
Finance Ministry officials said Mr. Ekanayake was also preparing to write to other debtors including the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which owed a massive Rs. 90 billion.
They said CPC losses would rise to Rs. 200 billion by the end of this year from Rs. 90 billion last year, if the debts were not paid.
The delay in payments for the fuel supplied by the CPC state agencies had a cascading effect on the CPC’S balance sheet. In addition to Rs. 12 billion that it owes to state banks, the CPC is also in debt to the tune of Rs.1.7 billion to the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal Ltd (CPSTL) as storage charges.
“The more the state institutions delay in paying their debts to the CPC, the CPC delays its payments to CPSTL. As a result the employees’ medical insurance scheme is to be curtailed and the CPC has failed to pay the gratuity money for its retiring employees,” a CPC trade union official said.
“In turn the CPSTL also owes more than Rs.600 million to the private fuel bowser owners for their services over the past few months,” he said.
In addition to the CEB and SriLankan Airlines (Rs. 5.2 billion) and Mihin Lanka (Rs. 695 million), other agencies that have to pay the CPC are Railways (Rs. 3.4 billion), RDA (Rs. 477 million), Maganeguma programme (Rs. 214 million), SLTB (Rs. 90 million), West Coast Power Co. (Rs. 2.45 billion), Sri Lanka Navy (Rs. 10.36 billion), Sri Lanka Army (Rs. 5.40 billion), Sri Lanka Air Force (Rs. 1.37 billion) and the Sri Lanka Police (Rs. 32 million), the Ministry official said.
Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha said the ministry was continuing to insist that state institutions should pay their debts to the CPC but the response was poor.
He said the biggest debtor the CEB had paid most of the money but the national carrier Srilankan was still do so.
He said that in the case of SriLankan and Mihin Lanka, he had suggested that some of the money allocated for the expansion plans of the airlines be used to pay the debts.
“All these institutions have a budgetary allocation and I have even suggested to the Treasury that without giving them the full allocation, a part of that money be transferred to settle the debts to the CPC,” he said.
The minister said the Srilankan had assured him that part of the debts would be settled within the next two weeks.
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in a report noted that there was a large amount of debts to be recovered by the CPC and the Cabinet had decided to grant Rs. 60 billion to cover the debt balances from the CEB and other government entities. The amount was granted recently by way of treasury bonds.