10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. S.M. Marikkar

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Colombo· 9 January 2026 ·Oral question: Oral Question: Gas Imports and Emergency Procurement (Q.9)

Public FinanceCorruption & Governance Reform
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Hon. S.M. Marikkar questioned the Minister on LPG procurement, referring to earlier COPE evidence that OQ Trading had been awarded a higher-priced contract during an emergency because Siam Gas Trading’s lower-priced shipment would take about 40 days. He asked whether, after the emergency had passed and OQ Trading had buffer stocks, continuing to allocate larger volumes to the same supplier without a continuous procurement process had caused a loss.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Minister, thank you for the detailed clarification. You say that by 2025 there was no economic crisis. However, the same single name chosen the previous year continued. When I raised this in COPE, I recall the then Chairman of the BOG saying that although Siam Gas Trading (Pvt) Ltd. had a lower price, their shipment would take about 40 days to reach Sri Lanka. Given the emergency, since buffer stocks could not be built, you gave a higher-priced award to OQ Trading. Now when OQ Trading has buffers, continuing to give them larger volumes without a continuous procurement process has caused a loss. Do you accept that?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Friday, 9 January 2026 ·No. 23149 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. S.M. Marikkar. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 January 2026. No. 23149. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/1654