Deputy Editor (Investigations) The Sunday Times; The Economist; NHK, Japan. Member, @ICIJorg. Views personal, RTs not endorsements. Email: nwijedasa@gmail.com
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Feb 29 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The decision to discontinue granting free tourist visas to Russians and Ukrainians who have been living in Sri Lanka since Feb 2022 (when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out) was taken after monthslong discussions between ministries and was not a knee-jerk reaction, documents show.
There were no objections from the Tourism Ministry or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stopping the facility. However, the Controller of Immigration and Emigration did not get Cabinet approval for it.
Jan 1 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
It's exhausting to keep hearing "you're just a journalist", "you're just a pattara karaya", "who are you, an unknown journalist" so many years down the line. But the common thread is that this always comes from people in authority who depend on patronage/votes for relevance.
And, yes, this might be a rant. This seems to be the best "insult" they can come up with, either when challenged on their actions/positions or their own relevance. For those who do it right, journalism is a profession, a damn difficult and a damn noble one.
Dec 18, 2023 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
The health sector investigation is the single longest one I've done in a while, starting December 2022. Had we kept silent, or given up, many more innocent users of government hospitals would have died or suffered. That is now blatantly clear.
The latest @TimesOnlineLK story: There was NO immunoglobulin in the "human immunoglobulin vials" that the health ministry ordered (and bought a part of) and distributed to hospitals. The vials did contain microbes and caused severe reactions in some of those who received them.
Oct 18, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The update for this week on medical procurements story, apart from there have been NO consequences for either @Keheliya_R or his officials: the Health Ministry had ordered 2 more drugs from the same company that sold counterfeit human immunoglobulin to #SriLanka hospitals.
The local company, Isolez Biotech Pharma AG, secured these tenders—as it did with human immunoglobulin—by purportedly using “fake” waivers of registration (WoR) containing “forged” signature and stamp of the chief executive officer of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority.
Oct 10, 2023 • 33 tweets • 8 min read
Here are some of the stories we wrote. All of them are based on documentary evidence and solid sources. Information was incredibly hard to get because @Keheliya_R and his henchmen gagged everyone.
In December 2023, we started reporting how #SriLanka's Health Ministry was dismantling the drugs regulatory mechanism and that this poses a serious danger to public health.
Today, we see yet another result of this abhorrent decision to dismantle structures and processes that protect ordinary citizens. Where did the human immunoglobulin given to patients in government hospitals come from? Who made it? Who paid for it?
In the earlier tweet thread, you will also see just how many medical colleges/associations spoke out about the health minister's/health ministry's/regulator's actions.
May 8, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
I've been following @Mike_Affinity's tweets and other information about meals for school children and I have something to say, as a journalist who has covered this story. #SriLanka
The problem of hunger and undernutrition in #SriLanka is dire and as bad as it ever was. Life out there doesn't comprise rosy economic statics and data, stock market ups and downs or "it's-better-than-before" middle-class narratives. Kids still don't have food. That's reality.
Feb 26, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The CEB's "cost-reflective pricing":
An independent power producer (IPP) selling electricity to the national grid since the early 2000s had by March 2021 made a net profit of Rs 14.8bn amounting to 855 percent of its initial investment, a Government audit has found.
From 2005 to 2015, the Aitken Spence-owned ACE Power Embilipitiya (Pvt) Ltd earned a net profit of Rs 8.57bn or 511 percent of its initial capital of Rs 1.67bn. The company’s profit during 2005-2007 alone totaled Rs 1.8bn.
Feb 24, 2023 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
This is a long thread, but worth it if you want insight into the #UNP's governance structure and what's going on in #SriLanka now.
In the late 2000s, I edited a report on inner-party democracy (citation at the bottom of the thread). Here's what stayed with me:
At its founding in 1946, the UNP convention was vital. It comprised delegates elected by the members of branches which were the UNP’s basic units. The convention appointed the leader and secretary. The 16-chapter constitution adopted after 1977 is starkly different.
Feb 9, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Is bypassing regulatory oversight, including evaluation, the answer to solving medicines shortages that were caused by not only dollar shortages but sheer inefficiency, lethargy, lack of coordination and procrastination? Are walk-in offers by unregistered pharma companies ok?
While grateful for #India's credit line for medical supplies, and while appreciating that it mandates procurement via #Indian companies, did India ask #SriLanka to bypass regulatory oversight?
Feb 9, 2023 • 42 tweets • 7 min read
Here’s a medical supplies issue I’ve covered for weeks but was too tired to tweet about. It’s related to drugs shortages, procurement and Indian credit. Specialists are repeatedly warning it poses a significant danger to public health.
The Health Ministry is using the Indian credit line (ICL) to procure drugs from Indian manufacturers outside of registration by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA and without evaluation, citing “urgency”. The medical community is furious.
Jan 9, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
While I understand the sentiment, it is time #SriLanka accepts that electing or defeating--or, for that matter, dramatically chasing out--an individual will not change anything. Nothing. Because new people come in and abuse entrenched systems.
This was one of the key reasons for why the #aragalaya didn't lead to a fundamental improvement in the state of this country. There was euphoria at chasing @GotabayaR out. Then what? Other people waltzed in and took over.
Jun 28, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
#SriLanka's National Audit Office has found that drugs shortages aren't just caused by the forex crisis. Officials are to blame. Computer systems aren't updated. There's no coordination. And procurement schedules are ignored. sundaytimes.lk/220626/news/me…
It also found a sharp drop in the financial allocation and expenditure for medical supplies. The Health Ministry’s total net allocation was Rs. 85.9bn in 2020, of which 99 percent went towards medical supplies...
May 1, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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 ($2.1 million) to a mysterious British-Virgin Islands-domiciled company called Sabre Vision Holdings — is what caught the attention of Colombo police.//
Remember post-war #SriLanka, when @PresRajapaksa was in charge and triumphalism ruled? Do you know how much money was quietly being poured into Hambantota at the time? We tried to track it and got nowhere near the complete figure. But here's what we found (1) #PowerCutLK
.@TimesOnlineLK tried to compile a list of major completed and ongoing infrastructure projects in Hambantota. Each figure was checked, to the extent possible, with the relevant Government agency. Hambantota. Some statistics or project details could not be obtained. (2)
sundaytimes.lk/220320/news/mo…
She spent weeks researching it. The project has destroyed elephant corridors, exacerbating the human-elephant conflict in agricultural areas, especially Matale. Agitated elephants were ruining crops and property built across inter-generational migration routes.
Mar 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is what your government is doing behind closed doors, despite this project being horrendously over-priced and non-essential. While Johnston Fernando is personally pushing it at ministry level, it has high backers. sundaytimes.lk/220327/news/hi… #SriLankaEconomicCrisis#SriLanka
The details are so guarded meetings of the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC) are oddly held at the Ministry of Labour and not at the Highways Ministry. And not all members are invited.(2)
Mar 7, 2022 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
While we are all raging against past corruption and, hopefully, blaming ourselves over why we did nothing about it, why don't you also read about a real-time case that's happening as we watch? Central Expressway Project Section III or #CEPIII#corruption#SriLanka
A contract to award part of #CEPIII's third section to a local consortium at a price higher by US$ 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.
Feb 17, 2022 • 29 tweets • 6 min read
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)
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