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Wattala-Mabole UC meeting minutes tampered with to sell prime land, charges opposition councillor
The Wattala-Mabole Urban Council is attempting to illegally lease out a 79-perch plot of land that has been subjected to separate inquiries by both Parliament and the Western Province Governor’s Office, an opposition councillor alleged.
Sri Lanka Freedom Party councillor Nimalsiri Koralage claimed that the minutes of the Urban Council’s special meeting held on October 7 had been “tampered with” to indicate that the council adopted a motion to lease out the plot of land to Melco Oxygen (Pvt) Limited for 30 years. This was the same company which had earlier been using the land on lease prior to its controversial sale.
“I was present at the meeting on that date and I can state with responsibility that no such proposal came before the council,” he asserted. Mr Koralage said what was adopted was a proposal to obtain a new valuation report on the land and lease it out again to Melco Oxygen (Pvt) Ltd. “There was no mention of a 30-year lease period and I also cautioned against leasing the land to the same company given that investigations are still ongoing.”
The council is to convene for its regular session next week where the motion will again be put to a vote. Mr Koralage said he plans to lodge a complaint with the Western Province Local Government Commissioner tomorrow over the tampering of council minutes. “The motion will likely pass at the session next week as the United National Party (UNP) has a clear majority in the council. But this entire process is illegal,” he asserted.
The land in question, the 79-perch plot known as “Aswedduma” has been the subject of controversy since early this year when the UC sold it following a tender process. It was so mired in allegations of corruption that both the Western Province Governor’s Office and Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) launched probes. It soon emerged that the land had been sold at Rs 1.3 million per perch without following due tender process, when its market value is well over Rs 4 million per perch.
It was further alleged that the tender process had been manipulated to sell the land to a relative of the owner of the company that was already leasing it, effectively ensuring that the land went to the same lease holder.
Though the land was repossessed following a directive by the WP Governor’s Office, the decision taken now to lease it back to Melco Oxygen (Pvt) Ltd. for 30 years is highly irregular and once again smacks of corruption, the opposition councillor said.
Meanwhile, Mr Koralage added that under documents obtained under the Right to Information Act, he found that since 1999, the UC had leased out as many as 12 plots of land belonging to the council that have a high market value. All the questionable deals had been done during the periods that the UC was controlled by the UNP, he alleged.
In the vast majority of cases, the annual lease in all these deals is a nominal Rs. 1000, he further charged.
Attempts to contact UC Chairman Mark Gunasekara proved futile.