General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Dayasiri Jayasekara said that President Maithripala Sirisena decided to take Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation under the purview of the Ministry of Defence to protect it from the arbitrary decisions of the subject minister Ruwan Wijewardena.
Speaking to the media this morning (10 Sept) in Colombo, Jayasekara said that many questions are being raised about President Sirisena’s decision.
Referring to a tweet by Minister Wijewardena in which he had said that SLRC is losing money and is paying wages through a monthly grant of Rs 40 million from the treasury to SLRC per month to cover the salaries.
Jayasekara said that SLRC has not yet received a single penny from the treasury.
Ruwan Wijewardene
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@RWijewardene
SLRC is operating at a loss. Through Treasury, tax payers have been funding SLRC’s salary bill of Rs 40m per month. For months I’ve been trying to change the management but was obstructed by the president. Latest attempt resulted in @MaithripalaS gazetting SLRC under his purview.
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1:38 AM - Sep 10, 2019
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Jayasekara said that normally a special committee at the presidential secretariat which comprises president secretary and few others evaluates and approves individuals before appointing them as chairman to government institutions.
“And Inoka Sathyangani was appointed legally by the president after the said committee took a standing decision to appoint her as the new chairperson of SLRC,” he added.
He also said that when Wijewardena the nominated the name of Sanjeewa Wijegunawardena who was a generator salesman for the position of the chairman the committee at the presidential secretariat rejected it.
And that while Sathyangani was still the SLRC chairperson minister Wijewardena appointed Kelum Maheerathne as the new chairman without the approval of the committee.
“The minister also continued to make appointments inside SLRC according to his own will which resulted in local councillors being appointed as directors in SLRC,” said Jayasekara
And said “at the same time, we saw both chairpersons sitting on opposite sides of the office desk and asking the other to resign,”
He added that even the majority of SLRC workers protested yesterday when they could not bear the situation.
Jayasekara also said that when Mangala Samaraweera was the subject minister there were no such problems within the SLRC.
(Republic Next)