Columns

For many, Christmas comes but once a year. But for some, Santa Claus makes a regular house call every month with a bag full of the Yala Maha harvest. The monthly bumper crop, valued at over Rs 20 million, is sent courtesy of the Agricultural Ministry. And paid for, without a murmur, by the Lankan public, displaying Christian charity the whole year round.

For what, you may well ask? Well, nothing new to the story, except for the fact that the supplementary estimate presented to Parliament last week on December 5 for Rs. 11 billion to provide for immediate government expenditure, also included Rs 66 million to the Agricultural Ministry. A sum of Rs 66 million may, of course, seem like a drop in the ocean of an 11,000 million buck amount but it once more brought to the fore the matter surrounding the building bonanza when it was revealed it was to pay some three months arrears in rent for their building block.

In September 2015, the cabinet gave approval to acquire the Agricultural Ministry’s building ‘Govijana Mandiraya’ occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture and shift it to the adjoining Sethsiripaya new building in Battaramulla. However, it was found that the space available at Sethsiripaya was not enough to house the Agricultural Ministry. A new building had to be found.

RAJAGIRI GOLDMINE: Building bonanza

What was chosen was a building owned by D.P. Jayasinghe Tours and Transport Co. (Pvt.) Ltd. It seemed the perfect fit. It had the space to house the Ministry of Agriculture and it was in close proximity to Parliament as well.

Cabinet also gave approval to lease out the building for a period of five years and the lease agreement was signed in April 2016. The entire building was to be leased out for a monthly rental of Rs.21 million plus taxes, 24 months’ rent in advance and three months’ security deposit to be paid. The lease was for a minimum of five years. The rent was to be increased by 15% after three years. In the final two years the advance rent amount was to be deducted from the monthly rent due.

In monetary terms it boils down to

• An advance of two years rent amounting to Rs 504 million, excluding taxes
• A monthly payment of Rs. 21million for the first two years (even though a two year rent advance payment of Rs 504 million has already been made) amounting to Rs 504 million.
• Another rent payment of Rs 252 million for the third year. Total payment for the building so far: Rent 756 million plus two year rent advance 504 million
• Rs. 1,260 million.
• With the increase of 15 percent in the rent after the third year, a monthly payment of Rs. 24,150,000 which amounts to a payment of Rs. 579,600,000 for the last two years. But since the advance of the two year rent is to be deducted in these last two years of the lease, the Government will have to pay only Rs. 75 million for this period of two year.
• The final tally for this five year lease will thus be: Rs 1,335 million.
• And that’s without the interest earned on the two year rent of Rs 504 million paid in advance and on the 63 million security deposit.

Fair enough. A lease is valid and can be executed with the mutual consent of both landlord and tenant: even as the Lanka-Chinese lease over the Chinese Port City was done, however obnoxious the terms may seem to some.

MINISTER DUMINDA: I was foolish

In the present case the issue is even simpler. The Agricultural Ministry’s place of residence on Government owned land was acquired for a higher purpose with cabinet approval. The government-owned Sethsiripaya building where it was to move lacked the space to give it a home. The Agro Dept had to seek refuge elsewhere to set up camp — at least for the next five years. Luckily, private sector help was at hand. A readymade, ready to move building, was at hand in close vicinity to Parliament, able to offer vacant possession to anyone who wished to occupy it on their price and terms.

None can be faulted for concluding this lease agreement. The Government Valuer is said to have valued it at approximately Rs. 13 million a month. But that does not mean a private landlord should cut his cloth and stint on his attire in an environment where market forces of demand and supply operate. D.P. Jayasinghe & Co. happened to have a vacant newly built building at the right place at the right time. It suited the Agricultural Ministry, too, to find a home so soon.

Except for one thing. The issue is not in the price and terms of the lease. But why, after a period of 20 months – from April 2016 to now – after the government has dished out with a shovel Rs. 504 million as two years’ rent in advance and a further Rs. 420 million as rent for the last 20 months, totaling Rs 924 million plus another Rs 63 million as a security deposit in April 2016 when the lease was entered into, why this building is still unoccupied? Why is it still vacant?
And the question is: Why did the Agricultural Ministry furrow the field and not plant its seed?

Why hasn’t the Agricultural Ministry still taken residence in this new billion buck building that awaits them, even though public money has paid for them to occupy it nearly two years ago? Or are they waiting for the buffalo calves bred under some livestock programme to mature to five years to take shelter in the building barn when the lease comes to an end?

When the agricultural ministry’s votes were taken up in the budget debate last month, and the issue popped up like a Jack in the box as it has done regularly these last twenty months, Parliamentarian Dr Nalinda Jayatissa, had a few pertinent statements to make in the House and put the Agriculture Minister in the dock. About how the delay had cost the nation and how the money needlessly spent could have financed so many other projects in the meantime. He spoke of opportunity costs, of the lack of proper planning, of mismanaging government funds and squandering the people’s money.

He said of what could have been done with the monthly rent paid for this unoccupied building,

• two months’ rent paid for the Agriculture building was equal to the money allocated to build a maternal and child health care unit at Polonnaruwa;
• two months’ rent paid for this building is equal to the amount allocated by the budget 2017 to build the biggest Buddhist Library in the country;
• the rent paid for 12 days for the building is equal to the amount allocated to provide a medical insurance cover for artists;
• the funds allocated to solve the issue of disposal of solid waste is equal to two months’ rent of the building;
• the funds allocated to thousand nurseries of cinnamon, pepper saplings as a project to give relief to women entrepreneurs and to build an institute for cinnamon industry is equal to two months’ rent of the Agriculture building.

In March this year, Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake admitted that his Ministry has been paying a monthly rental of Rs. 21 million since April 2016 for the new building in Rajagiriya, though still unoccupied.

However, when asked what the reason behind this delay was, the minister had this to say: “Let me give you an example; say that you are giving out a house on rent and I’m interested in renting it out from you, I would tell you that it would take another three months to get the furniture ready. We talk about this transaction in January and then I ask if I may start paying from March since I have to get the furniture done. Would you agree or not? The person giving out the building doesn’t care about when the building would be occupied. I have to change it to suit the needs of an office complex and this would only be possible once I have actually rented out the building.”

Well, if the Minister wants the truth, as to whether we — or any prudent person — agree or not, sad to say, no way. Not if one was spending out of one’s own pocket more than a billion bucks, half a billion paid up front to the landlord. For instance, would the good minister have done so if he had to dig deep into his own pockets? Unless, of course, his pockets were deep enough, bottomless so to say, as politicians of all hues, think the public coffers are. One can afford to indulge in, or tolerate such wanton waste and limitless squander, only if it’s OPM — Other People’s Money. If a private person wishes to waste his money, that is his own private business. But can a minister say the same when he is in charge of the people’s money?

Last month during the budget debate, the minister was forced to admit in Parliament he had been foolish to rush into the lease agreement. He said: ‘For some time now there has been a mudslinging campaign carried out against me. I made a mistake in agreeing to vacate the present premises. I should have waited till a new building was made and the keys were handed over to me. Then I would not have had to face any blame.

‘The Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake was one of the brave few to cross the Rajapaksa moat with Maithripala Sirisena and for that he must be praised. But for admitting that he was foolish to enter into this lease without his ministry being ready to move in, occupy it and justify the enormous rental he must be blamed. Hundred marks for candour. Zero for competence. Can this nation afford the luxury of ministers throwing people’s money down the Mahaweli due to ministerial folly?

Yahapalanaya may have demonstrated its transparency to the full. But does it not stand naked when it comes to accountability?

Ja-ela John blasphemes Prime Minister Ranil’s UNP gospel It was indeed a shocking outburst coming from the lips of a senior UNP minister of the government that blasphemed not only his party leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP gospel of just governance but also his moral creed of right speech.But the brawny Ja-ela’s John Anthony Emmanuel Amaratunga, though baptised at birth with the names of three Catholic Saints, is not one known to hold his tongue when it comes to lashing out at the rival camp and giving the ‘works’, in a manner that would have made Maradana’s late famed thug Choppe proud. In a gung ho speech addressed to the public this week, he announced his readiness to win the forthcoming coming election by any means. He said, “If anyone comes against us, we will hammer the fellow and chase him out. We have nothing to worry this time. This time the government is ours, the police is ours. No one should be afraid. We will deal with anyone. What we want is your vote only. If any one of you has no ID card, tell us and we will fix it for you. “ JOHN AMARATUNGE: Speech unbecoming Even as the President and the Prime Minister would have put their hands to their foreheads to grieve the damage done to the Yahapalana image of the government by this unwarranted verbal outburst; even as thousands in the joint opposition would have brought their hands together to clap in cheer at John’s speech which would give them the ammo to show there was hardly any difference between the defeated Rajapaksa regime and the elected Sirisena government; and whilst the Archbishop of Colombo may have clasped his hands in prayer at the Archbishop’s chapel seeking divine succour to help mend the Christian Affairs’ Minister’s wayward ways and bragging tongue; and whilst thousands of Christian may have wondered why there was no Father, the Lord, no Son the Christ and no Holy Ghost in Christian Affairs Minister John’s Catholic heart, he suddenly left the sea of his political polemics to embark upon a new voyage in a quest to find answers to the people’s pecuniary plight. He turns Lanka’s economic savant. He asks the people, “How much is rice now? The crowd answer, its 150 bucks. Oh, my mother, that’s the price of rattharan (gold). The reason for that is because there’s a drought. But don’t worry. We are going to import rice. Within a week you’ll have it at a lesser price. “ Then he asks, “How much is a coconut today? The crowd answers Rs 130.” He says, that’s the problem, there are coconut trees, but no coconuts. But don’t worry. We will be importing coconuts.’ He asks then what about vegetables? How much are beans today? Someone shouts. ‘Its 100 bucks today. He says, “That’s it noh; when did it ever rise that much? But we have made arrangements to import it all from abroad. So don’t get worried and don’t blame the government.” The only thing he did not add to make it replete, “don’t worry we have made all arrangements to send some more women to Dubai to send home the necessary foreign currency to import the nation’s bare necessities. The following day, the joint opposition fired their guns. Joint opposition Parliamentarian Janaka Bandera Tennekoon said this Tuesday the Elections Commissioner should immediately inquire into the statement made by Minister John Amaratunga. But co cabinet spokesman Jayasekera and Senaratne immediately rushed to the Amaratunge’s defence. For Dayasiri Jayasekera who condemned journalists who had attacked him as being in the pay of politicians, or who were part of the bond mafia when he himself had been the one who had invited Aloysius to his office for a private one to one meeting and not revealed it to the public until the bond commission’s proceedings revealed it, said Amaratunge’s remarks should not be taken seriously. He said:”Minister Amaratunga is a person with a big frame. He may have said those things without much thinking of the repercussions.” So the bigger the man, the bigger the reason to excuse him, is it? No wonder Jayasiri is pumping iron. As for Senarath, it was a more a homely truth, ‘We, politicians, don’t do all what we say all the time.” Food for thought, is it not? Well, at least it’s something the public will swear by but it had the people wondering whether this was the puerile way government ministers — cabinet spokesmen no less — measure the intelligence quotient of the Lankan public; and suffer the belief that any rubbish they dish out would pass muster. It took Minister Sagala Ratnayake to explain the situation in more acceptable words. He said, “One should not forget the situation in the country before January 08, 2015. We have now ushered in a new political culture. That is why we should come forward to protect the rights of the voters and ensure a free and fair election.” True, it is exactly because the public and the media of this country haven’t forgotten how the country was run before January 2015 that they insist the present government to not forget it; and continue to remind them that the fate that befell the previous regime, await them too if they renegade on their promises to resurrect from the ashes of the Rajapaksa’s corrupt and decadent regime, a just government all Lanka can be proud of . Two matters remain to be addressed to the Tourism and Christian Affairs Minister, the 77 year old Mr. Amaratunga. The first is to remind him of a speech made by Joint Opposition MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage whilst he was the Minister of Sports under the Rajapaksa regime at a public rally during the run up to the Southern Provincial elections in 2013. He said: We will not allow anyone to dance. We have the government, we have the police, we have the army with us and we will not tolerate anyone to come to dance here.” Perhaps due to his advancing years, Mr. Amaratunga forgot to add, that the government also ‘had the army’ with them but surely even creeping senility, god forbid, could not have made him forget the consequences that followed Mahindananda’s ministerial arrogance at the height of Rajapaksa power. Secondly, Amaratunge’s answer to the high prices of rice, coconut and vegetables, especially beans, was to import it all. If that is the gamut of his economic genius to solve the cost of living crisis by importing the nation’s basic staple diet, perhaps he should leave it to the subject ministers concerned. And, instead, as the Minister of Tourism, concentrate more on importing more tourists to this thrice blessed isle of Shangri-la.

Wimal: Has the exodus begun when soon there will be none? Spare a thought this Sunday morn for the plight that has befallen Wimal Weerawansa as he ponders what international conspiracy has brought about his own down fall.Many years and moons before he had left his beloved JVP but not without saying he had worked so hard for the party’s welfare that he didn’t have time enough to climb its rocky steps and see for himself the topless damsels Kashyapa may once have beheld atop his lion’s lair fleeing his brother’s wrath for walling his father with cement.Forming a new party of his own, the National Freedom Front, he had joined the Rajapaksa regime with nothing to offer but his blood, tears, toil and sweat plus of course a foul tongue which he was willing to prostitute to rise above his slum status. WIMAL: Feeling lonesome this night After spreading his lips wide eagle and giving full throat to the Rajapaksa dictate, he enjoyed the high life on the water bed of power, perks and privileges, springing up and down like a yo- yo held in Rajapaksa hands, for over six or seven years, till it sprang a leak and drowned his high flown lifestyle in a flood of disaster. But his Master’s Voice still echoed from him and gave full flight to speech which many of the low life considered as oratory. But, alas, he finds today, that this dubious gift, along with his manicured finger nails and his gel creased hair and even his carefully trimmed goatee all done up at a five star saloon to keep up appearances, has miserably failed to dawn El Dorado in life’s track. Forget viewing the pouting breasts of topless damsels at Sigiriya in the name of the JVP, banish even the near death experiences he twice have had in the name of the Rajapaksa regime’s fortunes. None has served any purpose. International conspiracy or no, the fact remains that his own rank and file, the few members he could count on his hands to justify calling the NFF a crowd and not mere company, have deserted him when he needed them most, especially when he is facing trial for corruption and needs a choir to sing his carol that it’s all due to political revenge. Already four have left, including the Deputy Leader. So when will it be his turn to bid adieu? Will he be the last to leave it? Or like rats jumping the sinking raft that always was the NFF, will he be the next to hit the water? And then there will be none. Seems like the party is over for Wimal.