It is reported that former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has now arrived at Katunayake Airport. That is for departure to the United States of America.
A court order had been issued preventing the former minister from traveling abroad and Basil Rajapaksa’s lawyers reported to the Supreme Court and said that their client wanted to go abroad for medical treatment.
After considering the facts, the court temporarily lifted the foreign travel ban of Mr. Basil Rajapaksa.
Mr. Basil Rajapaksa is scheduled to leave for Dubai on an Emirates flight and will then travel to America from Dubai.
It was recently reported that the State Ministers were to be sworn in for his American trip. Accordingly, yesterday, 37 state ministers were sworn in and the majority of them were members of the Podujana Peramuna.
A story doing the rounds in political circles is that a Chairman of a State Bank ( Peoples Bank or Bank of Ceylon) took a bribe of LKR 150 Million for approving a loan of over 2 billion to a hotel group ( Pearl Grand Hotel Group? ) .
The loan must now be non performing or in a moratorium giving no income to the state bank. We have several times highlighted the Rs 40 Billion of Bad loans in peoples bank given to political cronies. The officers concern have not been reprimanded by Central Bank to date. One such officer was approved by the Central Bank to become a Chairman of a private bank. That is the level of mismanagement that is happening with in the Central Bank. Why waste tax payers money to have a Central Bank if they can’t protect public money ?
We are investigating who the Chairman who collected the Rs 150 million and whether he is still the Chairman or being given a new assignment in another big state enterprise where he can continue his corrupt activities? The country will never come out of the morass if we don’t surgically remove corruption from the public sector.
It was last week we highlighted how a top public official bought a Benz from ill gotten commission allegedly earned from a gas or petroleum deal. We are exposing these allegations in the public interest despite the limited information we have. Corruption must stop at the top levels for the poor man to make a living and come out of poverty. Adolf.
ASIA PACIFIC – 8th September, 2022 – The Public Relations and Communications Association Asia Pacific (PRCA APAC) has announced Thanzyl Thajudeen MPRCA as its first country representative in Sri Lanka.
Thajudeen is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) with over 10 years of experience in advising, managing, and leading PR and communications for notable brands across diverse industry sectors in Sri Lanka.
Spearheading the strategy in the local context, the representative will pursue activities aimed at curating, sharing, and enforcing knowledge and insights, and actively engage with industry leaders and practitioners within agencies and organisations in Sri Lanka. Among the initiatives is to publish a brief report on the state of the industry in the country and organise an industry webinar with renowned communications experts in the APAC region on emerging challenges and insights.
Head of PRCA APAC Tara Munis said “Thanzyl Thajudeen is a positive driving force for PR in Sri Lanka. As the world’s largest and most influential professional PR association, our mission is simple – to raise standards across the world. We’re looking forward to working with Thanzyl to further untap PR’s enormous potential in Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka representative Thanzyl Thajudeen MPRCA said ‘‘It is with great pleasure to represent PRCA in Sri Lanka and I believe it is long overdue of having a global voice in the industry. As the world’s largest and most influential PR professional body, there is tremendous amount of insights and resources that can be mutually beneficial to making relevant, sustainable and responsible decisions in a practice that is constantly challenging and evolving.’
‘‘We look forward to actively engage and work together with diverse stakeholders such as agencies, organizations, media, associations, academia, policy makers and experts to uplift the communications landscape and standards of Sri Lanka through various activities that spur knowledge sharing, responsible practices, and continuous learning,’’ Thajudeen added.
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) is the world’s largest professional PR body, representing more than 35,000 PR professionals in 82 countries worldwide, delivering exceptional training, authoritative industry data, and global networking, and development opportunities. Its mission is to create a more professional, ethical, and prosperous PR industry. It also manages the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) – the umbrella body for 41 PR associations and 3,000 agencies across the world, and LGcomms – the UK’s national body for local government communicators.
Seen here is the new Anthoney’s Meatlery at Koswatte
New Anthoney’s Farms (Private) Ltd, one of the leading producers in the country’s poultry sector announced plans to introduce a chain of retail outlets under Anthoney’s Meatlery as part of its overall expansion strategy, with the first ever outlet unveiled recently in the town of Koswatte at Battaramulla.
Anthoney’s Meatlery, one of the initiatives among many others in the pipeline, will pursue the concept similar to that of a spacious and modern meat supermarket chain. Customers could buy premium meat products which are sent to the outlet within a 24-hour timeline from its production, reflecting on the brand’s promise and values of offering freshness, safety and quality.
‘‘We are excited to establish our very first retail outlet offering all our products in an upscale setting to bring an immersive experience to our valued customers. This is a significant milestone in the local context and with time to come we will see Anthoney’s Meatlery evolving into a retail chain with outlets conveniently located across the country,’’ said New Anthoney’s Farms CEO Neil Suraweera.
The outlet will have all the meat products New Anthoney’s Farms offer, such as Haritha Hari, Crizzpys, Chico, Precut, Pet food including the newly added 6-piece part HIT pack in addition to a range of sausages, breaded items, cold cuts, eggs, spices and signature sauces.
Recently, New Anthoney’s Farms reassured an adequate and uninterrupted supply of its meat range amidst the feed shortages experienced in Sri Lanka. And have instead also expanded its production to cater to the increasing demand in both domestic and international markets, of which the latter has enabled the company to bring in the much-required forex.
The move to set up its own retail outlet chain is another step in getting closer to its loyal customers who have for years enjoyed the freshest and safest meat that is nutrient-rich, antibiotic-free, and delicious. It also introduced Dorakadapaliya mid last year, a one-of-its-kind online meat shop which also offers free island-wide delivery.
In addition to the range of chicken meat available at Anthoney’s Meatlery, it also has various pork, mutton and beef products with plans to bring lamb as well.
During January this year, New Anthoney’s Farms also shifted to 100pct compostable packaging measures in the Haritha Hari chicken range. It is also the only poultry producer in Sri Lanka to be awarded the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Verification Statement from Control Union. With GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, local and international halal accreditations under its belt, upholding and enhancing quality and hygiene has always been an integral part of its growth including adhering to standards in line with that of the National Chicken Council, USA.
A committee has been appointed by the President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake to review the “Public Forms” printed by the Government Printing Department.
It has been observed that various government agencies are currently using 98 common forms to facilitate government services. Some of them are out of date and it is expected to be revised to suit the present.
Accordingly, the review of all forms currently being printed by the Government Printing Department for the use of the Government will be carried out by this committee.
The other members of the committee were appointed under the chairmanship of H.A. Chandana Kumarasinghe, Director General of Institutions Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government, are Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policy, Additional Director General D.H.S. Pulleperuma, and Prime Minister’s Office Senior Assistant Secretary (Development) U.I.W. Seneviratne.
The tasks of the committee are as follows.
1- Review of all general forms currently printed by the Government Printing Department 2- Use Least Common Formats and identify redundant fields 3- Identifying common forms that can be printed on A4 size paper, currently printed on larger paper sizes 4- Identifying and recommending common forms that do not require printing but should be posted on relevant websites with the facility of downloading 5- Making recommendations regarding outdated public forms, revised forms with proposed form (content and size) and forms to be posted on the websites of the concerned institutions.
Furthermore, it has been instructed to submit the committee’s recommendations to the President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake on or before November 15, 2022 so that they can be presented to the Cabinet.
While Sri Lanka is facing a serious foreign exchange crisis, it is a serious problem that senior foreign service officers who are representing Sri Lanka as ambassadors in foreign countries continue to use luxury houses for their residences in those countries.
It is said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has even issued circulars to go for low-priced houses when getting new houses for the houses that are expiring, but still the relevant officials are insisting on giving high-priced top-class quarters.
In some countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to spend an amount of Rs.50-70lakh. in Sri Lanka currency for one official for such a house. Apart from this, millions of rupees are spent on official vehicles and other expenses for each senior ambassador.
Even the embassies of the rich countries of the world choose low-cost houses or low-cost houses near the main city for their residence.
In addition to this, allegations have also been made against some foreign service officers who have been receiving fraudulent monthly bills claiming that they are entertainment expenses for many years.
The Queen has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace has announced. The Queen’s death ends the longest reign in British history. She was also the world’s oldest head of state.
The Queen has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace has announced.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” Buckingham Palace said.
Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history and the world’s oldest head of state.
On her death, the Queen’s eldest son and heir, Charles, the former Prince of Wales, has become King of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms.
No official details have been released about what will happen over the coming days, but it is anticipated that the Queen will be given a full state funeral, as is traditional to mark the death of a monarch.
It is also expected that her body will lie in state to allow the public to pay tribute.
The King will sign off the final plans in the coming days.
The reservoirs used for electricity generation are completely full due to the recent heavy rains and the hydroelectric power plants, therefore, can operate at maximum capacity, claimed Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Janaka Ratnayake.
In the backdrop, there will be no need of resorting to further power cuts, the PUCSL Chief claimed, revealing that despite the one hour power cut currently in operation, there had not been any requirement to do so since September 03.
Ratnayake expressed confidence that the coal stocks used for thermal power plans will be sufficient to meet the electricity demand for the rest of the year.
However, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara made a contradictory statement in Parliament today (08) claiming that the coal stocks owned by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) suffice only till September 15. Resorting to a daily power cut of 08 hours from October 15 would be inevitable, had it been not possible to procure the necessary coal stocks for the coming period of the year, Wijesekara said contradicting the PUCSL Chief’s comments.
The country could be driven into a massive power crisis, in any event are the coal power plants not able operate further, mainly because these power plants meet a large percentage of the country’s total power demand.
Despite Sri Lanka trying hard to obtain the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to recover from the huge economic crisis befallen the island nation via several rounds of discussions on and off the land, the efforts so far have not been successful, sources said.
The IMF is of the view that Sri Lanka must resort to debt restructuring for the debts it obtained from foreign states and fiscal bodies, should a relief be provided. In contrast to this condition, a number of parties, including China, which is Sri Lanka’s primary creditor, have not agreed to restructure the debts.
A REUTERS report claimed that many countries, including Sri Lanka, have obtained debts and are requesting debt reliefs from China, due to which the debt restructuring policy is being reconsidered.
Known for its reputation of not disclosing debt conditions and how it enters into agreements with states which are unable to settle debts, China is the world’s largest bilateral creditor, who, according to the REUTERS report, now finds the backdrop challenging.
From 2000 to 2017, China has lent US $ 843 billion to 165 countries in the world, and the interest free loan percentage of these debts was less than five per cent.
China has cut the interest-free loans it had given to 17 countries in the African region on 23 occasions, the report added.
Legalisation of cannabis for exportation may hopefully be implemented in a move to emit dollars in large amounts next year, said new State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage, speaking to reporters upon being sworn in her new position in the government.
The new State Minister emphasised that the importation of essential commodities and the slashing of prices of goods are not possible without a forex inflow, and a project, therefore, must be implemented to emit dollars.
She revealed that she has proposals in this regard, adding that her previous suggestion of legalising cannabis for export purposes is one of them. Such a process would resort to the emission of dollars into the country in large amounts next year, she told the reporters.
Gamage also added that with her new position as the State Minister of Tourism, the implementation of such a project will definitely be possible.
