Chamal promises to ascertain how radar equipment went missing

By Saman Indrajith

The government would be able to finish within the next six months the investigations into a missing radar receiver and an antenna scanner belonging to the Air Force after a private company undertook to transport them to China for repair, and find out who was responsible, Minister of Irrigation and the Minister of Internal Defense, Home Affairs and Disaster Management, Chamal Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday.

Those items had been handed over to the Care Logistics Pvt Ltd to be transported to China in April, 2014 and they had gone missing, the minister said in response to a question raised by SJB Ratnapura District MP Hesha Withanage.

Asked to mention the names of the directors of the company that undertook the transporting of the items, the Minister responded that the following were the directors of the Care Logistics Pvt Ltd: Ramesh Gihan Oliver Wijesinghe, Nihal Wijeweera, Krishan Priyankara Ramesh and Nalin Prithiraj Wickrama. The value of the items had been originally estimated at Rs 74 million but at the time of handing them over to the company they were in damaged condition and the value had been estimated at Rs 29 million, the Minister said.

Asked to inform the House whether the aforesaid company still provided services to any state institution in Sri Lanka, the Minister said that question could not be answered by his ministry.

MP Withanage said that the problem was whether the same company continued to provide services even after the grave misplacement of radar and antenna scanner. “This company has been allowed to work with the government. No action has been taken against this company. This had been swept under the carpet. During the times of our government too it had not been investigated. Is this government headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who has an understanding of this issue owing to his military background too hiding this fraud,” the MP queried.

Minister Rajapaksa: “Several investigations had been done. Some investigations are still in progress. How could our government within one year find it when your government failed to do so for five years? But I can assure you that within the next six months the investigations would be over and we would be able to identify who is responsible. In that sense our government succeeded where your government failed.”