Sri Lanka suspends firm from defence HQ construction

The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday suspended a private consultancy firm involved in the construction of the new defence headquarters.

The former Sri Lankan government decided to shift the headquarters of the tri-forces from Colombo to Akuregoda, Xinhua news agency reported.

In 2015, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake proposed appointment of a committee to submit a report on the project which was estimated at an exorbitant cost including its scope, total cost, operational time frames and awarding of consultancy contracts and to pursue action in pursuant to the report.

The committee appointed by the government has now observed that the selection of consultancy firms for the project and their payments were done without providing true information to the cabinet of ministers.

Accordingly on a proposal made by President Maithripala Sirisena, the cabinet has decided to suspend the services of the selected private firm and to review the payments made for the firm.

Once the project is completed, Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence and tri-forces headquarters will be shifted to the new state of the art facility.

--IANS

ask/py/vt