New SOE to run Lotus Tower

• Cabinet approval given to establish new SOE to commercialise Lotus Tower

The Cabinet of Ministers yesterday approved a proposal to establish a new State Owned Enterprise (SOE) to commercialise the almost completed Lotus Tower and handle its financial operations.   

The Cabinet paper presented by President Maithripala Sirisena in his capacity as Minister of Defence was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. The short statement released by the Government of Informational Department said that as the completion of the Lotus Tower was imminent it will be handed over soon to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC).

However, it was necessary to establish a new SOE to commercialise the Lotus Tower so that the public could use its facilities and businesses could operate from within the premises. Therefore the Treasury was entrusted with the task of establishing a new SOE to commercialise the Lotus Tower and enable it to operate as a business entity. 

The Lotus Tower was begun in 2012 under the previous Government but has been fraught with delays and financial irregularities. An unsolicited project the Tower had run into issues from the start, a report from the Auditor General’s Department has said, pointing out that among other issues the land the Tower is on has not been vested with the TRC and payments for the delays had not been met.