Mayor, Commissioner deny corruption charges

The Mayor and a former Municipal Commissioner of the Matale Municipal Council have been accused of being involved in financial malpractices in the council.

Opposition Leader Dalgith Aluvihare alleged that Mayor Hilmi Mohamed and a former Municipal Commissioner had violated the Municipal Council Act on several occasions by engaging in shady deals.

He alleged they were involved in selling two vehicles belonging to the MC without following proper procedures and even caused financial loss to it.

According to Mr. Aluvihare the Matale MC had taken a decision to sell by auction the two vehicles – a motor car and a fire engine. However the two vehicles had been later sold only after calling for quotations.

He said that it was a violation of MC procedures to sell the vehicles after calling for quotations as the council did not give approval for such a sale.

Mr. Aluvihare charged that there was another malpractice while selling the fire engine. He said that the Finance Committee had decided to sell the vehicle to a person at a price of Rs. 576,250 but the former commissioner had changed the Committee decision arbitrarily and offered it to another person at a higher price.

He added that even that person did not buy the vehicle eventually resulting in it being sold to another person. Mr. Aluvihare alleged the MC had accepted Rs. 12,500 from the Matale Athletic Association for a musical show it organised to raise funds, whereas the mayor had noted in a document that the association had been exempted from entertainment tax.

He said that even the Rs. 12,500 cheque was a worthless one. He also alleged even though the council had received Rs.12,500 as taxes from the sale of tickets amounting Rs.50,000, it has been estimated that Athletic Association had earned about Rs.400,000 and the Mayor had failed to collect the taxes properly.

The Mayor refuted the allegations as baseless and said he followed proper procedures when selling vehicles. He said both he and the former commissioner worked lawfully and raised the standard of the MC.

He charged that the opposition leader and his councillors were attempting to mislead people and disrupt the activities of the MC.