Malaysian petroleum project: Angry president reprimands Ranatunga for delaying licences

Rs. 5b iPad project stopped again; PM to head committee to work out guidelines; pilot project to be launched

President Maithripala Sirisena strongly reprimanded Petroleum Resources Development Minister Arjuna Ranatunga at last Tuesday’s weekly ministerial meeting for unduly delaying the issue of licences to a Malaysian firm for a project in Sri Lanka.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Hirax Oil Sdn Bhd, manufacturers of petroleum derivatives including lubricants, had already set up a USD10 million production facility in Muthurajawela. This was in collaboration with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) which was to become the sole owners in 10 years. Details of the joint venture deal had been cleared by the Attorney General before it was concluded.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who visited Sri Lanka in December last year, was to have declared open the venture. However, it then came to light that the Petroleum Resources Development Ministry had not issued the required operational licences and the event could not be held.

At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, ministers took up for dis- cussion a memorandum by Minister Ranatunga. In that, he had declared that further discussions needed to be held before the project could be finalised.

A ministerial source confessed, “I have never seen President Sirisena so angry any time before. He appeared very agitated.”

Mr Sirisena exhorted: “There is no point in talking any more. Issue the licence today itself without any further delay.” Provincial Councils, Local Government and Sports Minister Faiszer Musthapha also complained about the undue delays in commissioning the factory. Without the licences, they could not import raw materials required, he pointed out. Mr Ranatunga tried to dismiss the charge on the grounds that his ministerial colleague was known to those in the Malaysian firm.

Highly placed government sources acknowledged yesterday that there were complaints that a politician had asked the representative of the Malaysian firm to meet his relative. At the meeting, the relative in question had asked for USD250,000 each for three different licences claiming that funds were required for political activity. The firm in question had, thereafter, threatened to go for arbitration saying they had a sound legal case. A source close to Minister Ranatunga, however, denied there were any moves to seek bribes and claimed “there were no improprieties.”

President Sirisena also put a halt to a proposal for the third time by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to spend five billion rupees to import iPads to be issued free to GCE Advanced Level students. This proposal was discussed at length in November last year but the matter was put on hold. Issuing iPads was a proposal in the government’s 2017 budget.

Commenting on the proposal, President Sirisena pointed out that schools were without basic amenities like buildings, toilet facilities, furniture and faced a number of other shortcomings.

He said he was not against the Education Minister’s proposal and it should not be construed as such. In principle, he said, a rational view had to be taken so other shortcomings in schools that caused great inconvenience to students were addressed.

President Sirisena recalled how he had a meeting with university academics earlier in the week about this subject.

Many were of the view that there was also a darker side to the free issue of iPads. There was no way of preventing the students from accessing porn sites. Even if passwords were introduced, in no time they would learn how to bypass them.

In view of this, he said, there should only be a limited pilot project. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will chair a committee that will formulate the guidelines under this pilot project, he said.

In light of this, ministers agreed that there would initially be a pilot project at a lesser cost. Based on the outcome of this pilot project, a decision would be taken whether or not to continue with the free iPad issue to some 175,000 students.