The United National Party today stated that the government’s wide scale corruption and nepotism is continuing to burden the public and that the workers are becoming paupers while one family enjoys the riches.
UNP MP Joseph Michael Perera stated that the government has no money to even pay the salaries of Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) employees, who he says have not been paid for 4-5 months.
He stated that the when SLTB employees strike, government politicians arrive with the police and frighten the employees and forcibly send them back to work. “The employees return to work fearing for their lives,” he said.
The Gampaha District Parliamentarian stated that a similar incident had occurred at the Negombo Bus Depot recently, due to none payment of salaries.
Salaries are not being paid on time anywhere in the country. There is no money because there is no profit, he told reporters in Colombo today.
Perera stressed that the most dangerous aspect of this situation is that the laws existing in the country, does not apply to the government.
Pointing out that the government is unable to pay Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Pension Fund, he said: “how can the government force the private sector to pay gratuity and EPF?”
UNP MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara, also speaking at the press conference, stated that the country has already been privatized and pleaded with the ruling UPFA government to provide the working class people of the country with wages sufficient for the current cost of living, as it had promised.
He stated that millions were spent on the Hambantota Port but no ships are anchoring and the Mattala Airport has become a white elephant. “The government is pawning the public, state employees and gambling.”
While government servants are becoming paupers, one family in the government is becoming rich, he said.
The parliamentarian charged that of the 30 names, of persons with the most illegal money in Swiss bank accounts revealed recently, many are connected to the government and that even big shots of the CEB are among them.
