The Hon. Nalin Bandara Jayamaha

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, the previous Hon. Member admitted they signal left and turn right—fair enough. On vehicle imports, while we welcome good outcomes, we worry about the haste.

¶ 02 Yesterday Hon. Murajibur Rahuman raised a sector close to me: a power tender. The critical body is the Procurement Committee, which decides after thorough technical and commercial evaluations. In this case, the first envelope is the Techno-Commercial Proposal. The Hayleys bid was rejected due to a major deviation—an unacceptable bid bond under procurement procedures. Yet a Procurement Appeal Board (with lesser authority than the Committee) recommended reconsideration, though it lacks legal power. The stronger Procurement Committee said reject. Before appointing a Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee (CANC), this should have gone to the National Procurement Commission (NPC). To my knowledge, it did not. The issue is not Hayleys, WindForce, Vidullanka, or LTL per se—all four bid. The question is: why was a bid from a technically rejected bidder brought forward and its envelope opened? What was the interest?

¶ 03 I have long experience in the power sector—over 1,500 MW worth of plants built in recent decades: Norochcholai, Upper Kotmale, Embilipitiya ACE, Uma Oya; I was Sri Lanka’s first electrical contractor in wind power; I also own a couple of mini-hydro plants. It appears special preference was given to that company during President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s time—why? We can guess: “for the old pals.” Even a 0.02 USD/kWh difference on a 50 MW plant producing about 1.2 million kWh per day is a lot in rupees. But price comes later—the first concern is the violation of tender procedure to favour a bidder. If the utility wanted a lower price, it could have asked the compliant lowest bidder to match. Instead, rules were bent to favour Hayleys/Dhammika Perera—well known for helping your election. Both then and now, power seems aligned to favour him.

¶ 04 We urge you to cancel this tender; do not award it. If there’s a price issue, negotiate with WindForce PLC rather than violating procedure. Next, we hear you plan an LNG power deal with Adani. We will watch rates and the integrity of that deal as well. Though USD 0.462 cents may seem small, in aggregate it is not. Please act lawfully; do not set this precedent.