The Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe - Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, this is the third no-confidence motion brought by the Opposition. Some tried to make this about Minister Kumara Jayakody personally; but as a Government we act collectively with Cabinet responsibility. The coal issue has been debated for months. Some push to award to the second-ranked bidder — Potencia — which supplied continuously before without tenders via Cabinet approvals. Parliament speeches will not give it this tender.

¶ 02 How do you bring a no-confidence against the Minister over coal supply? Did he act to cause losses or collude? The Secretary’s alleged statement that “corruption occurred” should be investigated properly if made; a Secretary too bears responsibility to act, not just allege.

¶ 03 Claims of Rs. 22 billion loss: we are examining how such figures were computed. Under the tender, the supplier must deliver to spec; the TEC and procurement bodies selected the supplier, and contracts were signed. Historically, seven ships (2014–2017) were rejected; first at load port sampling, then at destination, and finally by third umpire — eventually 3–4 were rejected, others accepted, but only after months. These are known industry processes.

¶ 04 We have already withheld about USD 15 million via the retained 20% and other instruments — around Rs. 8.5 billion — based on performance and quality shortfalls. If generation falls below plan and we must use alternative sources like diesel, we will compute the incremental cost and recover from the supplier rather than burden the public. If hydropower is low (inter-monsoon), LNG not yet online, and solar storage limited at night, diesel may be needed — we will still pursue recovery.

¶ 05 We will ensure uninterrupted supply and not pass extra costs to the people; we are taking legal action to recover from the supplier. Opposition no-confidence motions keep eroding their own credibility. The President spoke here; Ministers answered under Standing Order 27(2). We will defeat this motion decisively. Thank you.