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Sirisena poured more than Rs. 25 billion into his Polonnaruwa
During the Presidency of Maithripala Sirisena from January 8, 2015 to November 16, 2019, Rs 25.293 billion was used for various development projects in his Polonnaruwa district as direct government expenditure through various state agencies besides foreign funded projects.
This information was obtained by the Sunday Times through a Right to Information (RTI) query.
According to the information provided by the Presidential Secretariat, a five-year long ambitious programme called ‘Pibidemu Polonnaruwa’ (Let’s awaken Polonnaruwa) development programme was rapidly implemented following a Cabinet decision taken soon after the former President took office in January 2015.
Former President Sirisena who hailed from the Polonnaruwa district oversaw the whole implementation process of the dedicated development programme by conducting periodic meetings, writing personal letters and requests to senior government officials on the state of the ongoing projects. This was revealed in the selected sections of the performance reports of the Presidential Secretariat from 2015 to 2019. The reports were sent as part of the response to the RTI query.
In 2015, Rs 4 billion was spent on 152 projects. The projects varied from school-related development work, sanitary facilities for schools, development of pirivenas and hospitals and the conservation of wildlife, forests and roads. In 2016, out of 908 approved projects, 618 of them were completed while Rs 5.63 billion was allocated to complete 2,338 approved projects, of which 1,781 were implemented fully in 2017.
In 2018 and 2019, out of allocated funds of Rs 20 billion, Rs 15.663 billion was spent to carry out 6,765 projects through ministries, the provincial council and local government authorities under the purview of the Presidential Secretariat.
Details of funds spent on former President Sirisena’s official and unofficial visits during his near five-year tenure are not available at the Presidential Secretariat, according to the response sent by the Secretariat to the RTI query. “A separate register for the foreign visits of His Excellency the President has not been maintained by this authority,” the response said while indicating the Presidential Secretariat has decided to withhold the relevant information.
Responding to another query whether there are any pending payments over these official visits undertaken by the former President, the Presidential Secretariat said there were no pending payments nor has it been informed on such pending payments by the General Treasury or any other institution.