Chinese company wins Colombo Port City Project twice
View(s):Almost three years after the government abruptly cancelled a contract awarded to a Chinese company without calling for tenders for the Colombo Port City project, the same company, China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) has been offered the deal contract – this time drawing criticism from the opposition United National Party (UNP).
CCCC is incorporated as a holding company under the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) group.
The deal was exposed exclusively by the Sunday Times in a 26th June 2011 report titled “Chinese to build a luxury port city off Galle Face”, saying there were irregularities. Soon after that it was suspended on a directive from the President and a Standing Cabinet Appointed Review Committee was asked to review the whole process before giving approval to the project.
The latest deal involving the same company was announced recently. This week in parliament, Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe raised the issue of an alleged fraud of US $300 million relating to the project, which has an estimated total investment cost of US $1.34 billion.
He demanded that the government submit all the relevant documents pertaining to the development to parliament, and questioned the tender from the CCCC.