News

CIABOC moved against ‘questionable’ scholarship scheme for teachers

Published

1 year ago

2021/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe with his union colleagues arriving at the CIABOC in Colombo on Wednesday

Project rejected by Dullas and GL receives approval

By Saman Indrajith

JVP-led Ceylon Teacher Services Union (CTSU) on Wednesday (29) lodged a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) over alleged irregularities in awarding foreign postgraduate scholarships to those in the education administrative service.

CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said that they had requested the CIABOC to investigate the selection process followed by the Education Ministry in awarding full scholarships to 54 officers of the Sri Lanka Education Administration Service (SLEAS) to study in the UK.

Speaking to journalists outside the Bribery Commission Jasyasinghe said: “The World Bank is funding the scholarship scheme and about eight million rupees is to be spent on each beneficiary. The selection process lacks transparency. Therefore we urge the Bribery Commission to look into this.”

Jayasinghe said that each recipient of scholarship would be given eight million rupees as course fee and the ministry was planning to spend Rs 432 million for that purpose alone. “The 54 SLEAS officers is only the first batch. The entire project will benefit 300 SLEAS officers and the total cost will be 2,400 million rupees. We suspect that there is corruption in the selection process and other financial transactions with regard to this first batch, because we know that monies have been paid out of the ministry funds for visas of four selected officers without following due process,” Jayasinghe said.

He said the entire project was questionable and former education ministers Prof. G.L. Peiris and Dullas Alahapperuma had rejected it. “If the government wants to send SLEAS officers overseas for higher education there is a procedure and it can find qualified personnel in a transparent manner.”

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Stay on course and don’t go back to the past – Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Published

4 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

Former Governor of the Central Bank delivering the keynote address at a high profile Webinar hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka today (24) said that Sri Lanka must implement the structural reforms proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without relaxing like in the past or else we will be in a deeper economic mess.

The webinar was titled ‘What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF programme’

News

Sustainable economic development goals cannot be achieved unless attention is paid to mitigating climate change – Sagala Ratnayake

Published

4 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake said sustainable economic development goals cannot be accomplished without taking steps to mitigate climate change.

He said this while participating in the 10,000 sapling planting program organized by the LEO Youth Vision 2048 Club and the LEO Club at the Royal College, Colombo on Thursday (23rd).

This program was organized in view of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s birthday, which is today (24), and the required plants were distributed to the main schools of the Colombo District.

News

SF claims thousands of police and military personnel leaving

Published

16 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

By Saman Indrajith

Thousands of police and military personnel had left the services recently as they did not want to carry out illegal orders, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament yesterday. According to the war-winning army commander 200 policemen have resigned during the past two months and 25,000 soldiers have left the army during the last two years.

“We urged the law enforcement and military officials not to follow illegal orders. We will reinstate them with back pay,” he said.

Fonseka also urged the President and the government MPs not to take people for fools.

“Sri Lanka owes 55 billion dollars to the world. Ranil’s plan is to borrow another seven billion during the next four years. So, in four years we will owe 62 billion to the world.

Ranil and his ministers ask us what the alternative to borrowing is. These are the people who destroyed the economy and society. They must leave. Then, we will find an alternative and develop the country,” he said, adding that the IMF loans had made crises in other nations worse.

“Ranil says that by 2025, we will have a budget surplus as in Japan, Germany and South Korea. These countries are economic power houses, and this comparison is ludicrous.”