Mystery of the missing 2 billion buck stigma of the Lotus Tower
President makes startling allegation of fraud at Lotus opening but UPFA Gen. Sec. says if Sirisena’s claim is wrong, his officials must take the rap
Perhaps, it was not the best of all possible auspicious times for President Sirisena to reveal at the grand ceremonial opening of the Lotus Tower this Monday that a massive two billion bucks paid as an advance to a Chinese company had gone missing along with the Chinese company even before the first foundation stone had been laid for the tower project in 2012 under the Rajapaksa regime.
It was as if the stigma at the centre of the lotus had been stolen even before the bud had bloomed.
Even though the night time sky was awash with sweeping lights and an impressive fireworks display as the Lotus Tower blossomed into operations, the most incredible and resounding firecracker was ignited by President Sirisena and the fallout the most damaging.
In the dazzling flare lit to expose the alleged two billion buck scam, Sirisena claimed that Rs. 2 billion that was paid by the Sri Lankan government in 2012 as an advance to a Chinese owned company called ALIT for the construction of the Lotus Tower had disappeared from the books. He said: “The estimated cost of the tower was Rs. 19 billion. EXIM bank, China was to provide Rs. 16 billion. On 3rd January 2012 the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) signed a tripartite agreement with CEIEC and ALIT to construct the Tower. We paid Rs. 2 billion to ALIT but this sum is missing from records. In fact, ALIT is a fake company."
In the presence of Chinese envoy in Sri Lanka, Cheng Xueyuan, t he President stated: “In 2012, an advance payment of Rs. 2,000 million was made to ALIT company in China. In 2016 ALIT disappeared. I then personally and then officially instructed our Chinese ambassador M r. Karunasena Kodituwakku to conduct an inquiry to ascertain what happened to the company called ALIT.”
“We informed the then Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka about this matter,” the President said. “I told our envoy in China Mr. Kodituwakku to personally check on ALIT company who had also been a signatory of the Tripartite agreement. The address given by the company was an address in Beijing. Therefore, I told him to inform the Chinese foreign ministry and also go to this Beijing address personally and check on the matter. He personally went to the given address. The address was correct but there was no company by that name there or anywhere else in China. Thus the advance of two billion was not there. Neither was the company. It was as a result this that Sri Lanka was given only Rs. 12 billion by EXIM, the Chinese bank.”
However, former TRC Director General Anusha Palpita refuted President Maithripala Sirisena’s allegation. Palpita said the money had been transferred to an account maintained by CEIEC at the EXIM bank.
Not even the prevailing rains could douse the ire of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa when informed of Sirisena’s allegation and the insinuation it contained. In fact, he was absolutely livid.
The day after the Colombo wedding reception of his son Namal held at Mount Lavinia Hotel where the President was an honoured guest, Mahinda Rajapaksa hit back describing the Sirisena allegation as a ‘complete falsehood’ designed to ‘throw stones at the opposition on the eve of a presidential election. Furthermore, he said, to cast such an allegation was an insult to China, a major world power that has always been friendly and helpful to Sri Lanka, is unconscionable. And, by uttering it in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador, only made it worse.
The former President stated this Wednesday: “At the time that this payment was made in 2012, the TRC which was in charge of this project was directly under me as the President. The Exim Bank of China agreed to provide a loan facility of 88.6 million USD or up to 85% of the total project cost. The remaining 15% of the cost had to be borne by the TRC.
Rajapaksa stated. “Documents confirm that on 9 October 2012, the TRC had credited 15 million USD (Rs. two billion) to the account of the main contractor China National Electronics Corporation. The latter company is still the main contractor of the project. The advance payment of Rs. two billion was never paid to the other contractor ALIT.
On Thursday, Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku issued a clarification regarding the Lotus Tower Project allegations. In it he said: “In mid 2018, His Excellency President Sirisena telephoned me in Beijing and requested that I look into the whereabouts of ALIT, as letters posted to it by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka had been returned to Colombo informing that no such company was at the given address.
Kodithuwakku went onto say: “I then entrusted the task of tracing the current location of ALIT to the Head of the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing. After much effort, the Embassy found that the company had moved to a different location, as well as withdrawn from the Lotus Tower project without informing the TRC. Once the company's new premises were located, we visited it and met the officials who were present there at the time. They then informed us that their company ALIT was no longer involved in the Lotus Tower project.”
COPE chairman JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti on Tuesday moved into action and declared that an exhaustive inquiry would be commenced to every aspect of the Lotus Tower Project. He said that officials of institutions including TRC would be asked to be present before the committee to give evidence in the probe of allegations pertaining to the Lotus Tower. “Since we already have the Auditor General’s report, we can pursue the matter in a speedy manner and swiftly arrive at its conclusions.”
But even if Mahinda’s explanation, Koddithuwakku’s clarification and the COPE findings show that the president had embarrassed himself by making such a damaging allegation without paying due diligence as to its veracity, not to worry. A flock of lambs have already been earmarked for slaughter at the altar of presidential credibility. On Wednesday, the UPFA General Secretary had an escape route lined up in case the worst should transpire.
Addressing a media conference, Mr. Amaraweera said, “If President Maithripala Sirisena’s claim that Rs. 2 billion was missing from the investment of Lotus Tower Project turns out to be incorrect, it is obvious that officials who gave him the figures are to be blamed for such misinformation.” In other words, the sins of their political masters will visit the public officials. They will have to take the rap.
When and if the COPE should get down to the business of probing the Lotus Tower affair, it should not fail to inquire and give answer to two important questions: Two questions that baffle the public mind.
The first billion buck question is why the President, in 2018, chose to turn his ambassador to China into a Sherlock Holmes and task him to do some amateurish investigative work when he could easily have entrusted it to trained investigators from the FCID or CID?
The second billion buck question is why the President, having harboured such suspicion for so long, chose the ceremonial opening of the Lotus Tower this Monday to allege in public the great Chinese two billion buck vanishing trick?