The Cabinet terminated the contract of former UNP Minister Daya Gamage’s construction company named ‘Olympus’ over what the government called a deliberate delay in completing the second phase of the Central Expressway. The delay smacked of a bid to sabotage the expressway project, Chief Government Whip Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said yesterday.

“The previous government awarded construction contracts to its cronies. A construction company owned by former Minister Gamage was awarded the contract to construct the second phase of the Central Expressway. The company kept delaying the work in spite of our repeated requests and reminders. We instructed them to expedite the construction of this section. We cannot open the section from Mirigama to Kurunegala without completing the construction of this particular section.”

Minister Fernando said that even though an additional sum had been paid, Olympus had not done any work. “We will terminate the contract awarded to Olympus company owned by the former minister for deliberately sabotaging the Expressway construction work”, he added.

As per the terms of the contract between the ministry and the company, the ministry had very few options when the company deliberately delayed the process, the minister said. “One of them is was institute legal action against the company for breach of contract. It seems that was their intention was to get us to file a case so that te road work could be done until the case was over.”

Gamage was not immediately available for comment.