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Black Sand coal procurement violated tender process: Audit report

06 Oct 2022

  • COPF Chair calls for minimum one-year suspension of all officials involved
The Auditor General’s Department announced that the coal procurement process that had been followed when awarding a tender to the Black Sand Commodities company had not been in line with the Government’s tender procurement procedure guidelines. As such, Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chairman Dr. Harsha De Silva stated that the committee had recommended the suspension of all officials involved in the coal procurement procedure for a minimum of one year. He made this remark while presenting the audit report on the evaluation of the procurement process for the purchase of coal for the period of 2022-2025 for the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Norochcholai. The report by the Auditor General’s Department was compiled following a request made by the COPF Chairman after tender number LCC/22/TT/1, awarded to a company for the supply of coal, did not see fruition as the company refused to supply the coal. According to observations made by the Auditor General in the report, the coal procurement process had not been carried out in accordance with the Government’s approved procurement process guidelines. The report further stated that the procurement process employed in this instance had violated the objective of providing fair and equal opportunities to interested parties. The Auditor General’s report recommended confirming whether all parties involved in the coal procurement process are fulfilling their responsibilities in accordance with the Government’s approved procurement guidelines, and emphasised the need to take appropriate action against parties who deviated from the prescribed process. Speaking further in Parliament, MP de Silva raised questions as to how an unregistered company like Black Sand Commodities was awarded the tender.  Meanwhile, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera urged the COPF to first give the relevant officials a chance to deliver their explanation of the matter.    


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