The Hon. S.M. Marikkar

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, the previous speaker said the National People’s Power is always in power rhetorically. Yet they will not admit responsibility for the education reform mess. I even pity the Prime Minister; I suspect the inclusion of an LGBTQ logo-linked QR in the Grade 6 English textbook was executed from Pelawatte. No one in the JVP is now stepping forward to defend the PM. They seem to forget they once had only 3 percent of votes. Harini Amarasuriya created a breakaway party enabling them to gain positions, yet no one defends her today. The PM herself met the chief prelates, saying, “we didn’t ask anyone to scan the link,” which is ludicrous when the same logo appears on the LGBTQ official website. This cannot be brushed aside as a triviality.

¶ 02 Another key issue: who is accountable for the loss of public funds caused by this? Do not assume you will be in Government forever. Governments change; act accordingly.

¶ 03 On corruption: low-quality coal has arrived. The tender was structured effectively for a particular company. A former Chairman who sat on the Tender Board resigned only after the process concluded—this is the “new method”: do the deed, then quietly switch chairs.

¶ 04 According to the tender, coal with 5,900 kcal/kg was required for Lakvijaya (Norochcholai). Normally, to generate 300 MW with the specified quality, about 107 metric tons per hour are needed per boiler. The two most recent ships in January brought lower-calorific coal, requiring about 120 metric tons per hour per boiler to generate the same output—an extra 13 tons per hour per boiler; across three boilers, 39 tons more per hour; 936 tons more per day. At USD 100 per ton, that is USD 93,600 wasted per day—over the year, around 341,640 tons extra, costing over Rs. 10 billion and roughly six extra ships. Departure/quality reports that should have preceded arrival appeared only after ships docked—hand-carried, not by email. This resembles the daylight robbery of the Central Bank bond scam.

¶ 05 The Ministry says penalties may be imposed if coal is substandard. That is wrong: if two ships are rejected, the tender must be cancelled and a spot tender called. We hear testing has already been done and a “report” due by the 14th will try to clear it. If the report “clears” it, why speak of penalties beforehand? This tender must be cancelled for failure to meet quality and for resulting losses. Do not plan to scapegoat officials with fines.

¶ 06 I table the status document from the South African port for the House record.

¶ 07 Further, will this Minister, after exhausting current supplies from previous suppliers, drag us back to a “coal dark age”? Government Members should note: you will ultimately face the fallout. Like the bond scam, stop this theft now. The coal arrived via a Ceylon Shipping Corporation-chartered vessel; I will expose the frauds there with documents in the next sitting. The only remedy is to cancel this tender and move to a quality-assured procurement. If you reject a lower bid because of quality, you cannot do this job otherwise. The Power Minister and Government must be accountable. I conclude by calling for immediate suspension of this tender.

¶ 08 Thank you.