PM to provide another statement to PCoI

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will provide another statement at 1:30 pm before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing state sector corruption over a complaint on the Agriculture Ministry's building.

Mr. Wickremesinghe provided a one-and-a-half hour long statement before the PCoI before sittings had been adjourned by the Commission today (Sept 16).

The Prime Minister is due to sign as a witness at a wedding today and as such will appear before the PCoI this afternoon again.

The Agriculture Ministry had vacated its building in Battaramulla in 2015 after the Prime Minister had put forward a cabinet proposal to use the building for the activities of 17 Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committees.

Accordingly, the Ministry had then purchased a building owned by D.P.A Jayasinghe Company by paying a massive monthly rent of Rs 21.5 million.

A complaint against the exorbitant rent paid by the government had then been filed at the PCoI.