The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is preparing to spend a large amount of people’s money as commissions and corruption by importing substandard fuel once again, the United National Party said.
UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake stated that up until 1994 the CPC was a profit making institution and was amongst the top establishments which provided profits to the country’s income.
However after 1994 the CPC was subject to a drastic decline and started to incur losses, the corruption rate escalated, and its inefficiency reached such an extent that the CPC took the top spot among the “demons which swallow the country’s economy,” he stated.
Even before the hedging fiasco cooled down, the third incident of substandard fuel has been reported, the UNP Kandy District MP said at a press briefing today.
He claimed that Petroleum Minister Susil Premajayantha is shifting the blame of the substandard diesel issue on others, in order to save his skin.
Minister Premajayantha is now saying that the former heads of the CPC should take full responsibility for the importing of inferior fuel consignments, Attanayake said pointing out that the Minister has conceded that the fuel is below standards.
“In one hand it’s good that at least accepted it, however after doing so he asserted that it was not his fault but the officials of the CPC,” he said.
The company which supplied the fuel says it was not substandard and that it may have mixed with the CPC’s old fuel stocks while the Petroleum Corporation responds with a statement claiming test of the diesel had revealed it was not inferior however that old pumps were used, he added. “That’s a surprisingly hilarious story.”
On who are they trying to put the blame, the General Secretary inquired.
Tissa Attanayake charged that everything the government does nowadays is ‘inferior’, from petro, diesel to even ‘inferior examinations.’
He alleged that yesterday he was informed that one A/L examination paper had contained a question which was completely incorrect.
“Ultimately this will result in our economy becoming inferior,” he said.
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