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Coal confusion ends, minister Siyamabapitiya makes special announcement in the parliament about the three member committee report

(Lanka-e-News -12.Aug.2016, 11.30PM) Power and energy minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya made a special announcement to the speaker and submitted the three member committee report to the parliament ending the problem of the controversial coal tender.

Chairman of the Lanka Coal Company Maithri Gunarathna and the coordination secretary of president Shiral Lakthilaka both jointly started a stealthy conspiracy to present the tender to the same company which supplied coal during the barbarian tenure of the Rajapaksa by capitalizing the problem of the controversial coal tender. Shiral’s coolie Caffe (Campaign for free and fair election) also supported Maithri Gunarathna and made several announcements. All these henchmen’s were jointly in forward march to chase the current Prime minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and pelted stones to the Sirikotha before. They tried their best to disrepute the prime Ministers government by misusing the positions given by the president Maithripala Sirisena. They tried to use the coal tender controversy for their benefit. It has come to a stage that this Maithri Gunarathna is working in contrary to the power and energy minister. Finally the corrupt Rajapaksa’s too tried to capitalize on this coal tender controversy. Rajapaksa who swindled 18000 million continuously for six years, trying to present the current tender to the same old company and when Shiral Lakthilaka’s notorious Caffe exclaiming “Jayawewa” during the Rajapaksa protest march, both incidents revealed which group was jointly behind this conspiracy. All these coolies tried to capitalize the decision of the Supreme Court and took an immense effort to present the tender to the same corrupt company. However the three member committee appointed foiled the effort and certified a proper mechanism. If the cabinet would approve this mechanism,u nobody could be able to indulge in corruption in future. Even the attorney general has recommended this. Finally the Supreme Court too has said to follow this method. 

The following is the special announcement made by minister Siyambalapitiya.

Honorable speaker,

Hope you can remember that I made a special announcement in the parliament on July 23rd about the extensive information collected by me and my deputy minister about the procurement of coal in 2015 which was most controversial news among the public and in the media. Following the announcement it appears that many misconceptions have been cleared. I informed the parliament that I will receive a report by the expert panel on July 29th and according to the observation I would carry out my work. 

I received the report on the 1st of August and following is the composition of the committee
 
Dr. Vidyajothi K.K.Y.W. Perera – Chairman 
Dr. Luxhman R. Watawala – Member 
Dr. Janaka Ekanayake – Member
 

Honorable speaker it appears that the expert committee has given an extensive study in to the subject. The committee has gathered information from outside sources and has observed the management steps taken in this coal tender. 

I would like to point out the conclusions stated in this test report.

The power and renewable energy ministry has introduced a spot tender (for instant purchase) to purchase coal. As shown in the chart one when compared with the long term tender of purchasing coal, when purchased through the spot tender, there is a saving of US dollar  7.6 million.

The ministry at present is adopting a mixed procurement mechanism of both the spot tender and long term tender without keeping trust only on the spot tender. With this joint method the ministry has able to increase the source diversity and the supply security. 

When taking consideration of the prices of coal in the world market it is important to keep a balance of both the spot tender and the long term tender.

When resolving the problem of the sizes of coal blocks, following an extensive study of the money spent on breaking the large coal blocks in to small and the environment impact, it is important to indicate the particulars of the technical specification criteria in the tender documents.

As shown in the third chart, according to the sizes of the coal blocks following an impose of a surcharge, when compared with the initial bid prices, the country can have a net saving of US dollar 287,029.73 when we decide a price following a discussion. 

When purchased coal through a long term tender, despite imposing a surcharge for the size of the coal blocks listed in the tender documents, there would be a large financial benefit for Sri Lanka from the loads of ships of coal imported so far. The following chart diagram four includes that.

Although the paying price of coal depends at the time of the index price when shipping, since the coal is shipped from Indonesia,, South Africa, Australia and Russia it would be suitable to use the composite index when deciding the coal prices. 

When considering the total payment amount for the entire stocks of coal purchased in the long term and spot tender methods, we can state there is a large financial benefit to the country.

From the above conclusions it appears the Lanka electricity board has incurred a clear profit. 

Further the committee has shown that the mixture of long term and the spot tender, is the most trustworthy and profitable steps from the prudent steps taken to buy coal.

As shown by the committee report I would state in future the ministry would study the sizes of the coal, include the technical specifications in the procurement documents and function in a transparent manner without unwanted conflicts in this national task. I table the committee report.

I would like to end my statement by thanking the speaker who gave me this opportunity.

Thank You,

Ranjith Siyambalapitiya
Minister power and renewable energy

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by     (2016-08-12 23:19:39)

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