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Apr 29 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Dug up a 2011 piece on #Hambantota that I wrote for LakbimaNews which cannot be found online (no website or archives) now. #SriLankaEconomicCrisis #SriLanka Image
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More from @nimilamalee

Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
May 1
A Four Corners investigation, in collaboration with Colombo's @TimesOnlineLK also established that Aspen Medical has been embroiled in an international criminal probe into corruption and money laundering. Airing tonight. #SriLanka

abc.net.au/news/2022-05-0…
//However, Aspen Medical's first transaction in Sri Lanka — the payment of 1.4 million euros ($2.1 million) to a mysterious British-Virgin Islands-domiciled company called Sabre Vision Holdings — is what caught the attention of Colombo police.//
//The company was secretly owned by a middleman, Nimal Perera, notorious for his links to the Rajapaksa family which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for decades.//
Read 7 tweets
Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
Mar 30
Remember post-war #SriLanka, when @PresRajapaksa was in charge and triumphalism ruled? Do you know how much money was quietly being poured into Hambantota at the time? We tried to track it and got nowhere near the complete figure. But here's what we found (1) #PowerCutLK
.@TimesOnlineLK tried to compile a list of major completed and ongoing infrastructure projects in Hambantota. Each figure was checked, to the extent possible, with the relevant Government agency. Hambantota. Some statistics or project details could not be obtained. (2)
For instance, it doesn't include money spent on village roads/irrigation/schemes. An addition of available numbers showed that an amount of Rs. 676.353 billion has already been spent or is in the process of being spent on the district. The actual figure is much bigger. (3)
Read 8 tweets
Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
Mar 28
Supported by the #InternewsEarthJournalismNetwork, @tharushineethr1 did a brilliant job mapping the far-reaching, widespread environmental impact of the foreign-funded Moragahakanda-Kalu Ganga reservoir project. @earthjournalism

sundaytimes.lk/220320/news/mo…
She spent weeks researching it. The project has destroyed elephant corridors, exacerbating the human-elephant conflict in agricultural areas, especially Matale. Agitated elephants were ruining crops and property built across inter-generational migration routes.
Because Moragahakanda releases water earlier than usual into Minneriya tank, #elephants can't eat the lush grass that sprouts on the tank bed during dry season. The ‘Great Elephant Gathering of Minneriya’ has been decimated.
Read 5 tweets
Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
Mar 28
This is what your government is doing behind closed doors, despite this project being horrendously over-priced and non-essential. While Johnston Fernando is personally pushing it at ministry level, it has high backers.
sundaytimes.lk/220327/news/hi…
#SriLankaEconomicCrisis #SriLanka
The details are so guarded meetings of the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC) are oddly held at the Ministry of Labour and not at the Highways Ministry. And not all members are invited.(2)
The Highways Ministry is barreling through the controversial bid to award part of the Central Expressway Project’s (CEP III) third section to a local consortium at a price higher by US$ 822mn (Rs 238.5bn) than its competing bid.(3)
Read 5 tweets
Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
Mar 7
While we are all raging against past corruption and, hopefully, blaming ourselves over why we did nothing about it, why don't you also read about a real-time case that's happening as we watch? Central Expressway Project Section III or #CEPIII #corruption #SriLanka
A contract to award part of #CEPIII's third section to a local consortium at a price higher by US$ 822mn (Rs 166.4bn) than its competing bid is to be pushed through Cabinet in the coming weeks. This means it's Rs 166.4 BILLION rupees higher than the competiting bid.
This has upset this second bidder, China's Metallurgical Corporation (MCC) which claims its bid was priced at US$ 1.05bn (Rs 212bn) while the controversial offer, which has Highways Minister Johnston Fernando's backing, is US$ 1.87bn (Rs 378bn).
Read 16 tweets
Namini Wijedasa Profile picture
Feb 17
Investigative journalists know that every administration has its deal-makers. And one of the mysteries of the Yahapalana govt is the #Hambantota Silver Park project.

THREAD (1)
March 6, 2019: Cabinet approved Malik Samarawickrama’s memo to lease out 400 acres in Hambantota for a petroleum refinery as a joint venture between Silver Park International (Pvt) Ltd, Singapore, and the Ministry of Oil & Gas of Sultanate of Oman. (2)
It was said Accord and Omani Ministry signed the US$ 3.8bn deal to build a 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery in 44 months. Even Chinese investment into Port City stopped at US$ 1.4bn while China Merchants Port Holdings spent US$ 1.12bn to lease and manage the Hambantota port. (3)
Read 29 tweets

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