Kerawalapitiya LNG plant tender exposes deterioration in the political system

I write to you regarding the article published on the above tender.

Reading this article it is obvious that the writer is justifying the tender to be awarded to LTL on the basis of lower price and patriotism.

However in providing the calculations of losses to the government and people by not awarding the tender to LTL the writer has failed to justify the obvious conflict of interest in ITB guidelines and the conflict of interest and anti corruption clauses that are present in ITB and FEDIC guidelines.

Further he makes a contradiction in mentioning that the Samsung consortium bid was rejected as the price bid was not readable, but also mentions later on that the price bid was too high. So it seems that the bid was unreadable only to enable other bidders who disqualified to be considered.

Many of the facts in the article have been carefully written in a way to mislead the public by concealing many facts to favour LTL and Minister Ranawaka.

It is disappointing to witness that the press is influenced by the present power producers who while claiming to be patriotic and cost conscious sells power to the country at over Rs. 40 at preset.

I ask that your newspaper will not take my word but investigate into the rates at which LTL has been paid in the past few years as well as look into the fact that LTL is not audited by the Government Auditor and other irregularities that have been reported in the past including in newspapers published by your organisation.

S. De Silva