Questions over integrity of proposed company chief

A proposed key appointment to the new Lanka National Petroleum Company (LNPC) could run into controversy and raise questions of due diligence.

The oil and gas industry practitioner picked by the Energy Minister to be its Chairman was investigated by Britain’s official Insolvency Service which found he had failed to maintain and

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preserve adequate accounting records of a company he set up to market a fuel- saving device.

In 2016, he gave an undertaking to Britain’s Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills that he would not act as a director of a company for six years from June 21 2016--which means the ban only ends in June this year.

A person with a disqualification order cannot act as a director of a company in Britain; take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership; or be a receiver of a company’s property.

Energy Minister Gammanpila confirmed the appointment and said the person concerned had decades of experience in the oil and gas industry. “There are no political appointees, my friends, my party supporters,” he insisted, without being asked. “Even Petroleum Development Authority, I have not appointed anybody from my circles. All are eminent people in society."

I will inquire into this specific allegation,” he said, when asked about his credentials.

A simple Google search demonstrated that the proposed chairman's company was placed into compulsory liquidation in 2013 with a debt of 59,165 pounds. He was the sole director at the time.

It was found that between October 2011 and 2013, the company’s books were “inadequate to verify expenditure from the company bank account totaling £274,346 or verify whether receipts into the company bank account totaling £296,617 were a true representation of the sales achieved by the company”.

It could also not “establish the true level of liabilities owed to HM Revenue and Customs or verify the nature and purpose of personal withdrawals totaling £110,500” or whether it had any other assets than those publicly declared.

Information regarding the person has been brought to the notice of the Minister, authoritative sources said. However, the Minister confirmed his selection to the Sunday Times yesterday.