By Kelum Bandara and Susitha
R. Fernando
The main opposition UNP yesterday urged the government to disclose how the Foreign Ministry had spent its entire budgetary allocation of Rs.6 billion within the first six months of the year.
UNP front liner John Amaratunga made the demand when speaking during the debate on the Foreign Ministry supplementary estimate of Rs.3 billion.
He asked for a breakdown of how such a massive amount of money could be spent in six months and said the Ministry appeared to lack accountability.
Referring to the upcoming and much hyped SAARC summit, he said the arrival of Indian and Pakistan leaders was uncertain and a summit without the presence of these regional giants was bound to be a non-event.
“It is the turn of Maldives to host this summit, but the Sri Lankan government for reasons of its own has decided to host this event,” he said and lamented that in the name of SAARC thousands of homes of poor people were heartlessly demolished.
“Former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike also had such a grand international summit in 1976 by demolishing so-called temporary structures without listening to the pleas of the poor people. The following year, she suffered a huge electoral defeat. There is no doubt, a similar fate will befall this government as well,” he said.
With regard to the Supreme Court ruling against Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundara, Mr. Amaratunga said the two ministers responsible for this fraudulent deal had been spared today.
“These two ministers are safe today while Dr. Jayasundara is in the lurch. The same thing will happen to the Foreign Secretary if his Ministry is found to be riddled with frauds with regard to the year’s allocation of Rs.6 billion being spent in six months,” he said.
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