Civil society organisations and political party representatives have formed a committee to look into alleged corruption and irregularities in the power purchase agreement (PPA) signed between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Sahasdhanavi Limited for the development of a 350 megawatts (MW) dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant.

The relevant agreement was signed between Sahasdhanavi Ltd. – a fully owned subsidiary of LTL Holdings – and the CEB, for the construction and operation of a 350 MW LNG power plant.

The committee, which was appointed during a gathering of civil organisations and political party representatives yesterday (17), is co-chaired by the former Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila and the Electricity Consumers' Association (ECA) General Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, Dhammika said that the said committee expects to examine multiple issues tied to the deal, including the legal process followed in signing the agreement, the possible financial loss to electricity consumers due to it, and the issues pertaining to the LTL Holdings, Sahasdhanavi’s parent Company.

Minister of Energy, engineer Kumara Jayakody and the Secretary to the ministry, Prof. Udayanga Hemapala — who also serves as the Acting Chairperson of the CEB and the ex-officio Chairperson of the LTL Holdings — were not available for comment.

The ECA claimed earlier that the agreement in question, signed in April of this year, could result in a loss of around Rs. 73 billion annually to the public. At that time, Dhammika said that the project is being run on diesel, not LNG, because Sri Lanka currently lacks the infrastructure to import or store LNG. “There’s no way to get LNG into the country right now, and that situation isn’t going to change for at least another five years. So, in the meantime, this plant is burning diesel at a huge cost,” he claimed.