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A five-member Presidential Commission that probed ‘alleged corruption and malpractices from January 15, 2015 to December 2018’ has made strong strictures on the setting up of a Duty Free shop at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

The Commission said fraud and corruption had been caused by deliberately submitting fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain a million-dollar tender for Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd.

The report had already been handed over to then President Maithripala Sirisena. However, it has not been officially released yet.

The Commission was headed by Upaly Abeyrathne, retired Supreme Court Judge and comprised retired High Court Judge Sarojini Kusala Weerawardene, retired Auditor General, P.A. Premathilaka, retired ministry secretary R. de Silva, and retired Deputy Inspector General M.K.D. Wijaya Amarasinghe.

The Commission has recommended that the Chairman of the Technical Evaluation Committee and its members should be charged with failing to evaluate the financial statement and awarding the tender to Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd. It has also recommended that members of the Procurement Committee should be responsible for failing to study the recommendations before awarding the tender to Flemingo.

The Commission has submitted to both the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and the Attorney General’s Department the files containing details of misuse of powers and abuse of state property.

The complaint, according to the Commission Report relates to a “ A case of causing Fraud and Corruption by deliberately submitting fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain a million dollar tender for two duty free shops to the Indian company Flemingo at the BIA duty free shopping complex.

Among the observations made by the Commission in the report are:

• The Procurement Committee on a recommendation of the Technical Evaluation Committee has awarded a tender to Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd to provide a duty free shop to the company.
• The tender has been awarded though the annual turnover of the company was less than US $ 100 million. This was a violation of a tender condition.
• The Financial statement submitted was not of the company Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd, but one of Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd and its Subsidiaries.
• Accordingly, Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd failed to prove that its annual turnover was more than US $ 100 million.
• It was a violation of the Tender document to award the contract to Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd on the financial statements of Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd and its Subsidiaries.
• Entering into an agreement with Flemingo Duty Free Shop (Pvt) Ltd for 40 per cent of the shares from March 15, 2017 with approval of the Cabinet Permanent Procurement Committee and the Appeal board of the Cabinet Permanent Procurement Committee without evaluating the Technical Evaluation Committee report.
• Failure to submit a certificate, that the collective income was sufficient to be considered if the tendering company was a consortium made up of several companies.

Dayasiri claims SLFP can come to power

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera claims that their party “could take power at the next election and form a strong government.”

He made the claim when he addressed a Polonnaruwa  meeting to felicitate former President Maithripala Sirisena on November 30.

The event described as ‘Maithri Prasada Preanama’ was held at Pulasthi Bhuddimandapa public library.

Mr Jayasekera did not explain how the victory would come. More so, since his party is signatory to an alliance formed by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. Through that, the fledging SLFP has agreed in writing to support the SLPP and its allies.

Herath wants to be MP, not Lake House boss

Charitha Herath, former Secretary to the Media Ministry, said yesterday that he would not accept the post of chairman of the State-run Lake House newspaper group.

He said, he proposes to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections from the Kurunegala district.

New DIG for Western Province

Senior DIG Deshabandu Tennekoon has been named as senior DIG in charge of the Western Province.

He was earlier responsible for the Western Province (Colombo North) range.   The new appointment places him in charge of the entire western province.

Caroline Jurie with husband and child after being crowned Mrs. Sri Lanka	Mrs World 2020 Sri Lanka’s Caroline Jurie

Sri Lanka’s Caroline Jurie wins Mrs World Crown

Caroline Jurie from Sri Lanka has been crowned Mrs. World 2020, at the Mrs. World Pageant held on Friday at Las Vegas in Nevada.

Mrs Jurie becomes the second Sri Lankan to win the title, after Rosy Senanayake was crowned Mrs. World in 1984.

White van panic in US also

It is not only in Sri Lanka that claims of white van abductions are being made. The CNN has reported that there is talk about it even in the United States, of course, for different reasons. Here are extracts of the report:

New York (CNN) – Terrifying rumours initially propelled by Facebook’s algorithms have sparked fears that men driving white vans are kidnapping women all across the United States for sex trafficking and to sell their body parts. While there is no evidence to suggest this is happening, much less on a national, coordinated scale, a series of viral Facebook (FB) posts created a domino effect that led to the mayor of a major American city issuing a warning based on the unsubstantiated claims.

The latest online-induced panic shows how viral Facebook posts can stoke paranoia and make people believe that spotting something as common as a white van, can be deemed suspicious and connected to a nationwide cabal.

“Don’t park near a white van,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young said in a TV interview on Monday. “Make sure you keep your
cellphone in case somebody tries to abduct you.”

The mayor said he had not been told of the apparent threat by Baltimore Police but said it was “all over Facebook.”

Matthew Jablow, a spokesperson for the Baltimore Police Department, told CNN Business on Tuesday that while the department is aware of posts on social media it had not received “any reports of actual incidents.”

Indeed, while there is no hard evidence of any such phenomenon in Baltimore, unconfirmed reports of suspicious white vans in Baltimore and other cities across the US have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook in recent weeks and have been seen by potentially millions of Facebook users. At least one person who drives a white van has reported being harassed for it as a result of the rumours.

Baltimore City Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, co-chair of the Baltimore City Human Trafficking Collaborative, told CNN Business that he worried that the panic about white vans would distract from the wider issue of human trafficking.

“We need to make sure accurate information is out there especially because Baltimore is a hotbed of human trafficking in the country,” Burnett added.

He said the rumours had spread mostly through Facebook, “which I think is sort of telling given the national conversation around Facebook’s ability and inability to control the spread of inaccurate information on their platform.”

In Georgia, police investigating reports of suspicious white vans have asked the public to call 911 rather than post on social media.