Power and Energy Minister refuses permission for engineers’ foreign travel

By Ifham Nizam

The Minister of Power and Energy has refused to grant some CEB engineers permission for foreign travel for factory testing of equipment.

Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union President Anil Ranjith Induwara welcomed the Ministry’s move considering the current situation facing the country and he said foreign tours should be stopped.

“My view is that though foreign trips are needed, but this is not the time to depend on manuals,” he added.

Another engineer said the engineers were to travel to Europe for testing of a few short sections of high voltage cables purchased for a transmission substation project.

The CEB management forwarded the travel request costing over Rs. 3.5 million in foreign exchange for the Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera’s approval.

According to the papers submitted to the Ministry, the trip in question will be fully paid for by CEB although the banks are not issuing the required foreign currency.

At a meeting with CEB Chairman M. M. C. Ferdinando recently, the CEB trade unions questioned why the Board continuesd to send its engineers overseas at a substantial cost for tests, which could be easily conducted online.