Patali wants experts to investigate irregularities in oil procurement

CID can’t understand what’s going on

By Sirimatha Rathnasekera

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, on Thursday (25), sent a letter to President Ranil Wickremesinghe asking for an investigation to determine if there had been irregularities in the procurement of fuel.MP Ranawaka said that Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera last week had asked the CID to investigate the activities at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, and the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL). However, the police were not capable of determining if irregularities were taking place in such a complex system, the SJB MP said.

“The Auditor General must carry out this investigation, with the support of professionals, who have experience in auditing fuel procurement. This must be done by experts and not by policemen,” he said.

MP Ranawaka also said that a third party was making a killing from importing Russian crude oil to Sri Lanka. He said that Russia exports crude at a lower rate between 20 and 30 US dollars, than crude produced by other oil producing nations.

“However, we calculate the worth of the shipments based on the Brent crude index. So, there is a difference in what we pay and what we actually have to pay. Someone pockets that markup. Because of this the consumer has to pay between 46 and 69 rupees extra for a litre of fuel,” he said.

Ranawaka also said that the economic issues were not sorted out. Sri Lanka had been able to secure adequate quantities of gas because of World Bank aid.

“The World Bank used some money it had earmarked for other projects for us to buy gas. The fuel issue is not over. There is a diesel shortage now. There is a 33 percent drop in the consumption of diesel compared to the beginning of the year. Diesel is used mainly by vehicles that are involved in economic activities and therefore we can assume that there is a drop in economic activity. There is a 20% drop in electricity consumption,” he said.The government believed that IMF assistance was a panacea but implementing an IMF programme was not easy as it is linked to restructuring debt, Ranawaka said.