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CSC regains MV Lanka Mahapola only to sell it for scrap
- Sale of sole survivor MV Lanka Muditha in limbo as prospective buyer advances 10% and retreats
The Colombo Shipping Corporation (CSC) has repossessed its debt-ridden MV Lanka Mahapola vessel which was stranded in the Port of Mombasa in Kenya. But, instead of sailing the dilapidated ship back to Sri Lanka, the Corporation will sell it off in Mombasa, an authoritative source revealed. On Friday, the Ministry of Ports and Aviation invited bids for sale of the 30-year-old multipurpose general cargo vessel.
CSC once owned nine ships, but has only two left—Lanka Muditha and Lanka Mahapola. Its website still says that its vision is, “To develop a dependable and effective National Fleet of Ships for the country”. The ill-fated Lanka Mahapola suffered a series of mishaps in recent months. A company called Triple S Shipping chartered the boat in August 2011, and it sailed to the Red Sea four months later. However, it needed so many repairs since then, that the charterer was never able to bring it back.
“I couldn’t move it from Mombasa,” said Dr. Sanjaya Senarath, head of Triple S Shipping. “In order to do so, I would have had to spend around US$ 1 million to repair the ship.” Dr. Senarath said he settled unpaid crew wages up to March, and sent most of the workers off. The CSC settled the rest, before taking over the vessel. The Corporation will now have to contend with port charges and other dues.
Lanka Mahapola was previously detained in South Africa and Sudan amidst disputes over crew wages and queries over seaworthiness, certification and registration. Triple S Shipping still owes CSC hundreds of thousands of dollars in charter fees. The case has been referred to arbitration.
Dr. Senarath is a close relative of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Chief-of-Staff Gamini Senarath. He claimed that his company had chartered Lanka Mahapola not aware that the ship had already been marked for sale as scrap. “We were not informed that a Cabinet paper had been approved to sell the ship for scrap metal,” he told the Sunday Times. And, while Triple S did have the ship inspected and certified before purchase, Dr. Senarath insisted that its many shortcomings did not surface till afterwards.
“For instance, we were told that fuel consumption would be 15 tons per day, but actual consumption turned out to be 25 tons a day,” Dr. Senarath said. “The problems were unexpected. It would have been alright if the ship brought us income. We could have used that to pay off other dues. But we couldn’t earn because wherever it went the ship broke down.”
Meanwhile, there is confusion about the status of MV Lanka Muditha, the only other ship CSC owns. A company called Windsor Reef Navigation (Pvt) Ltd paid a 10% advance for the vessel in October 2012, intending to acquire it for scrap. The remaining 90% was not settled, although the Corporation extended the payment deadline.
CSC sources said its agreement with Windsor “now stands as breached”. The company was selected according to national procurement procedure, which includes evaluation by a Cabinet Appointed Tender Board and a Technical Evaluation Committee.
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