Sri Lanka Cabinet cancels consultancy in defence HQ project

June 23, 2016 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's cabinet has decided to cancel the consultancy given to a private firm for the construction of the defence headquarters complex at Akuregoda, Battaramulla.







"The Committee appointed in the above purpose has observed that selection of consultancy firms and their payments have been done without providing true information to the Cabinet of Ministers," a statement said.

The proposal made by President Maithripala Sirisena to suspend the services of the selected private firm and to review the payments made for the said firm, was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. In August, the Cabinet appointed an official committee to investigate and report activities being carried out with regard to the Security Services Headquarters Construction Project, estimated to cost 40 billion rupees.









This was on concerns that the relevant company had been selected without a competitive bidding process, and that it had got itself registered as a company under the Registrar of Companies and the Sri Lanka Architects Institute after being selected to provide advisory services. Advisory services for the entire project was 606 million rupees.





Although a sum of 509 milion rupees had been paid out, only 30.

02 percent of the project has been carried when the probe commenced.