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Bribery Commission report filed on Highways Ministry and CHEC agreement to settle outstanding dues
View(s):At least two complaints have been filed with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption against an agreement signed last week between the Highways Ministry and China Harbour Engineering Corporation (CHEC) to settle “outstanding dues” to the company amounting to Rs 7.91bn.
Despite the settlement agreement having been signed on September 6, the Road Development Authority (RDA) has not made the payment.
Cabinet on August 27 sanctioned the payment for the Kottawa-Dodangoda section of the Southern Expressway, which was opened 10 years ago.The breakdown of this massive payment, which has ballooned owing to rupee depreciation, is not immediately known.
Cabinet approval came despite CHEC not having followed standard contract administration procedures, including first seeking remedy through the dispute adjudication board (DAB).
CHEC was the contractor for the 35km Kottawa-Dodangoda stretch, while the engineers were the Tokyo-headquartered Oriental Consultants Co Ltd (OCCL). The section was funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and opened in 2011. A dispute broke out that year between CHEC and OCCL, with the Chinese company demanding payment for work that the consultant said had not been certified.
According to Nimal Chandrasiri, then Director of the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP), and other authoritative RDA sources, payment was turned down at least three times, not only by the consultants but the project office. “We found the claims not to be justified,” he said. There is also wide opposition to it within the RDA.
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