More than five years ago the construction of a maternity hospital began in Mahamodera, Galle, with a Rs. 900 million investment. But today all that can be seen is a concrete slab and corroding iron rods pointing skywards and the project is in limbo.
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| Helmut Kohl: Rescued by airforce helicopters when holidaying in the south during the tsunami |
Nissanka
Epaliyana |
It all started after the 2004 tsunami, when former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was holidaying in Sri Lanka at a beach villa in the South, when a wall of water came crashing in.
Mr. Kohl was plucked out to safety by air force helicopters and as a mark of gratitude he pledged to build a maternity hospital since the existing one at Mahamodera was badly damaged by the tsunami.
The money for the construction of the hospital was given from the Helmut Kohl Foundation and work began in 2006 on a four acre block of land acquired from the Irrigation Department.
However, barely nine months after work began on the hospital, the project came to an abrupt standstill amidst allegations of malpractice, corruption, inefficiency and indifference on the part of health authorities.
A local construction company, SENOC coordinated the funds from the Helmut Kohl Foundation while health authorities were supposed to monitor the progress.A senior academic based in Galle charged the monitoring mechanism failed from the very start leaving room for the construction company to have a free run with little care for transparency.
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| The billboard putup in 2006 announcing the project |
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| The site of the hospital: Allegations of corruption, mismanagement and indifference have been attributed for the project going into limbo.
Pix by Saman Kariyawasam |
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| Large pool of water collecting on the concrete slab breeding mosquitos |
“No one knows how the money was used and Rs. 900 million is a large sum. Some say that funds at the Helmut Kohl Foundation dried up with donors pulling out with the recent global meltdown while others claim that the money had been misused.
“ Whatever it is there is no hospital today and the worst part is that nobody is willing to take accountability but instead are passing the buck,” the academic, involved in the project as an advisor from the start told the Sunday Times.
Nissanka Epaliyana a member of the Lions Club (Galle Branch) said that the organisation’s German branch was also actively involved in the project and had provided funds through the Helmut Kohl Foundation.
He added that a Lion delegation that included two eye surgeons from Germany had also visited the site at Mahamodera after construction had begun to make a first hand assessment.
“They were not too happy with the way things were being done at the site adding that the government should play a bigger role if it is to be a success,” Mr. Nissantha who has helped raise funds for projects in the area said.
The German Embassy would not comment on the funding mechanism or why the project was stopped. A spokesman only said the project was scheduled to re-start sometime later, adding that it was working with the Government and the other stake holders.
“Our aim is to complete the construction of the hospital and we are hopeful that it will be possible. The public will be informed as the ongoing proceedings are completed,” the spokesperson said.
The Government for its part is now set to obtain a soft loan of 28 million Euros or Rs. 4000 million from a German bank to kick start the project for the second time.
The Health Ministry’s Director General Planning Wimal Jayantha said he was unable to comment on what took place in 2006 because it was a different administration then. He said however the government has already begun work along with several stake holders including the treasury and the bank in Germany.
He added that unlike earlier, the government would be involved in the project until the completion of the proposed 600- bed hospital.
Meanwhile SENOC Trade (Pvt) Ltd. Project director O. J. S. Perera told the Sunday Times that work had to be halted as the funds from the Helmut Kohl Foundation had dried up with pledges not being honoured by individual donors.
He attributed this largely to the financial crisis that hit the West and elsewhere, adding that the available funds were only sufficient to construct the base plate.
Waste of money; site breeding mosquitos
Thilak Haputhanthri who lives just opposite the site of the hospital project believes it is a waste of money.
He his convinced that the funds were misused since there was no proper monitoring by the authorities from the start.
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| Irrigation Dept. Staff quarters that have been
abandoned |
“What we have now is an eye sore with large puddles of stagnant water, ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” he said.
He said the quarters of the Irrigation Department that stood on the site were bulldozed to the ground in an ad hoc manner to makeway for the new hospital. “But at the end of the day it was all waste-the construction company being the only one to gain,” he charged.
Irrigation Department staffers who were living in the quarters were asked to move out and live on rent in the surrounding areas at a cost of about Rs. 10,000 as rental a month. “Is this not a waste of public money,” he asked. |
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