Convener of the Voice Against Corruption Organization, Wasantha Samarasinghe stated that there was reason to suspect that Ministers Rajitha Senaratne, S. B. Dissanayake, and Lakshman Kiriella were shareholders of SAITM.
He stated this upon attending a media briefing of the Anti-Corruption Voice today (13).
The Convener questioned as to whether money had been credited to Dr. Neville Fernando’s private account based on a Letter of Intent without signing a proper agreement, owing to such a relationship.
He accused that this group of ministers was paying Dr. Neville Fernando via the bank “like racketeers”, after which they paid the bank installment and overdraft, and that a fraudulent deal was in place to use the public’s funds to maintain the hospital for 10 years, and then still pay Dr. Fernando Rs. 3 billion as rent at the end of it.
He accordingly proceeded to urge the Prime Minister not to protect the SAITM institution “as he protects the treasury bond thieves”.
“The game of defrauding the people’s money must be stopped immediately’, Samarasinghe said.
Samarasinghe claimed that of the Rs. 2466 million obtained by Dr. Neville Fernando, only Rs. 500 million had been paid back since 2011, and even that was being paid off as a loan. He accordingly claimed that there was currently a deficit of Rs. 2265 which was being paid off by misusing public funds.
