My contribution to construction of new buildings in the University of Colombo

With the new government which came into power in 1977 there were several changes that took place. This was so in the case of construction of new buildings in government departments, corporations and other statutory bodies such as the universities.

It was not necessary for the universities to advertise calling for tenders from prospective consultants and building contractors. The universities had to submit the requirements of consultants and contractors indicating the new buildings to be constructed to the National Consortium set up by the government for this purpose. The Consortium sent the names of the consultants and contractors for each new building to be constructed.

The new buildings that the University of Colombo had planned to be constructed were the Chemistry Department, Physics Department, Law Faculty, Arts Faculty, Library and the New Administration buildings. All these buildings except the Library building were still under construction when I took over the reins as Registrar in 1984.

The first to be completed by the main contractor was the Chemistry building. However, when I inspected the laboratories, the timber used was of very poor quality and I asked the consultant to get the sub-contractor to remove all the laboratory tables and replace them with tables of good-seasoned timber. He declined to do this.

I got legal action instituted in the Mount Lavinia courts and at the end of the case the judge gave the decision in favour of the university. The contractor had to sell his car and other belongings to pay the compensation due to the university. I got the Government Factory to get all the laboratory equipment installed, including the tables with well-seasoned timber.

The Physics Department building ran into a problem with regard to the specifications which was pointed out by the structural engineer of the Buildings Department. The consultant did not accept it and unilaterally withdrew from the consultancy. Thereafter, the building was completed with the Buildings Department taking over the consultancy and rectifying the defective specifications.

The consultants to the Law Faculty building had designed the building utilizing materials for the roof (cladding), the ceiling, etc to be imported from Singapore so that the final cost of constructing the building would be high. This was because the Construction Consortium had decided that the consultants get 15% of the total cost! All the consultants used this ruse to jack up their dues.

The contractor (a government corporation) had damaged the roof claddings by boring the holes in the wrong places and this led to the roof leaking. I asked the contractor to replace the roof claddings at their own expense which they refused. I had to get rid of the contractor and withhold payment of Rs. 1. 5 million which was needed to replace the roofing sheets.

I got another contractor who was doing some other building in the university to complete the Law Faculty building. Next the consultant made a request to get the final payment. I told him that it cannot be done until the building is completed. He decided to leave taking the decision unilaterally. The consultant was not paid the amount.

The next building was the Faculty of Arts building which is a monstrous piece of architecture. We had to get the Finance Ministry approval to commence work in respect of this building. The Vice-Chancellor(VC) wanted me to draft a letter to the Minister of Finance(Mr. Ronnie de Mel) as most of the funds were being diverted to the University of Ruhuna. The VC sent the letter without any alterations and the university received the blessings of the Minister to commence operations.

The consultants had measured the land and had come to the conclusion that the land available would not be enough to accommodate the building. They suggested that the university get some land from the Planetarium premises. I went and met the Director of the Planetarium and apprised him of the problem and told him that I will give him double the land from the adjoining area in exchange for the plot given to the university.

He told me that he cannot do it as he had no authority. Then I contacted the Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry and as was expected of a government officer, he did not agree. The Secretary of the Ministry had the same answer. Now only the Minister was left to be contacted. When I told the ViCe-Chancellor, Prof. Stanley Wijesundera, he immediately got the Minister, Mr. Jayatillake on line and addressing him by his first name told him the problem. The Minister immediately gave instructions to release the land required by the university. But ultimately, it turned out that the additional land was not required.

In the case of the Arts Faculty building too the consultant had put in many unnecessary features to jack up the cost. When it came to the second stage of the building, I told the consultant to reduce all the unnecessary frills and get a simple building constructed. This was done and the cost was reduced drastically.

But the university had many problems with the contractor as he was trying to get an additional amount by contacting the Vice-Chancellor, then ICTAD Chairman and the Secretary of the Ministry of Education. Right along the line I refused stating that the university had settled all dues.

On the land where the Arts Faculty building was to come up, there were a number of small tenements abutting Reid Avenue, occupied by the descendants of the Ceylon Turf Club (CTC) employees and others. We had to get rid of them to free the land for university use. It is a long story as to how I got rid of them. But to cut it short, I got it done with the help of the Urban Development Authority (UDA), by payment of compensation to only the descendants of the CTC employees.

The new Administration building was being constructed by the same contractor who was doing the Physics building. Whenever I went on an inspection, I found various shortcomings which I got the contractor to demolish and redo. The Buildings Department representative on the job was not supervising the work as he was in the pocket of the contractor, and in fact he used to drive the contractor’s van! Here too the consultants did not attend to the supervision properly and as such I did not pay the final instalment.

The next building to be constructed was the Botany building which was stage one of the planned Biology building. After a long delay, I managed to get the Treasury to agree to releasing the funds for this purpose. The second stage did not get off the ground until I left the university.

Of the buildings planned in 1980, the last to get off the ground was the Library building. From 1980 upto the time Mr. Richard Pathirana assumed duties as the Minister of Higher Education the Treasury had approved to release only Rs. 7.5 million. Then I wrote to the Ministry of Higher Education and with the help of two engineers in the Ministry and the UGC, I was able to get the required funds approved by the Treasury, which was now Rs. 245million.

A few alterations were done to the original plan and the building was constructed in between the Arts and Law Faculties. At the opening ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned all the other names, but my name was not mentioned even though the building would not have got off the ground if not for my effort. That is gratitude!

I must also mention an old building that had been constructed for the exhibition held in 1965 which was one of the two buildings left intact after the exhibition. The other was the Planetarium. This two storied building was used as the library on the ground floor and the upper floor as an examination hall. The building was surrounded by a moat.

I had to get a lot of work attended to to get the building to a usable standard as the roof was leaking and water was seeping through the floor which damaged some of the books. When the new library building became functional, this building was demolished.

I had a plan to get a new pavilion constructed retaining the front of the old existing pavilion. I got a design done for an upstair building with all facilities for two teams, which was done free of charge by the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB) . But I could not get this off the ground as the Instructor in Physical Education connived with a Dean of a Faculty and objected to the construction of a new pavilion.

I also got a cricket scoreboard done with all facilities as the university was using a small board to put up the scores. Here too the same Instructor got round the captain of cricket and saw to it that the scoreboard was never used!

HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE