7 October 2022 09:16 am Views - 501
By Sandun A. Jayasekera
General Secretary of the SLFP, former Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara alleged that a major fraud involving government politicians has taken place in the procurement of crude oil for the CPC, running into US$ 100 million (Rs. 36 billion approximately) from a single shipment recently.
Exposing this massive cheating of public money to the media at the party office, Mr. Jayasekara said the schemers of the theft have imported a shipment of crude oil through a company by the name of Coral Energy DMCC, who has never supplied fuel to the CPC or registered as a supplier of fuel to Sri Lanka.
“What has happened was that, this company has come into an agreement with the CPC to supply a shipment of 99,673 metric tons of Urals crude oil at the FOB (Free on Board) price of US$ 51.2 a barrel. But they have actually charged the CPC the price of Brent crude at US$ 82.09 in excess of more than US$ 100 million in a fraudulent manner. They have simply supplied a shipment of a cheaper variety of crude oil to the CPC of a different brand of crude oil that quoted a higher price,” Mr. Jayasekara stressed.
Mr. Jayasekara charged that the new company, the Coral Energy DMCC has come into the scene of supplying crude oil to the CPC after the current Power and Energy Minister took office and added the Power and Energy Ministry has threatened the CPC officials to import crude oil via the Coral Energy DMCC and discard registered suppliers. Only the CPC can call tenders for procurement of refined fuel or crude oil. The Power and Energy Ministry has no authority for that.