The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Anuradhapura· 19 February 2026 ·Oral question: Oral Question: Kaduruwela Market Complex (Q.)

Public FinanceCorruption & Governance Reform

AI summary generated by gpt-5.5

Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe said the issues concerning economic centre management fall under his Ministry and involve procurement and management decisions, including irregular construction practices, unaccounted payments, and audit queries linked to earlier work by officials who are no longer in post. He stated that the Ministry will provide written clarification on ongoing actions. He added that NAMSL has been legally established, with board appointments made under Cabinet approval and relevant criteria, to manage Sri Lanka’s economic centres properly.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, it is under our Ministry. The issue is decision-making within management. Under Procurement Guidelines, certain constructions cannot be done the way some tried. Because those were not regularized, some have been working ad hoc for long. Now there are many audit queries. Money paid has not been properly accounted for; funds from accounts have been used; those responsible are not there now. Some District Secretaries who started works have gone. Some speak without understanding. We will write and clarify what is being done.

¶ 02 We have legally established NAMSL. Boards are appointed under Cabinet approval and suitable criteria—the same way appointments are made to Bank of Ceylon, National Salt Ltd., Pelwatta Sugar, etc. Likewise here. Those appointed are carrying forward the process. NAMSL is the institution set up for proper management of economic centres in Sri Lanka. Please observe; in a short time, you will understand.

¶ 03 Thank you.

Provenance

Source: Hansard, Thursday, 19 February 2026 ·No. 23328 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column: not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
Permalink: /lk/speeches/30280

View source PDF ↗ Suggest a correction

Cite as: The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 February 2026. No. 23328. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30280