AJITH SIRIWARDANA 
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Rs.1.177 bn spent on CHOGM publicity
The Mass Media and Information Ministry has spent as much as Rs.1.177 billion for the publicity and media coverage of the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) conducted in Colombo in 2013, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Media Minister Gayantha Karunatilake placed these details before the House in response to a question raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The minister said these monies had been spent from treasury grants and he too could not fathom as to why such a colossal amount of money was spent for media related activities by the previous government.
Rs.828 million had been spent for the construction and maintenance of the media centre. Rs.180 million had been spent for publicity programmes in the electronic media, Rs. 144 million for public awareness programmes, Rs. 4 million for the purchase of office equipment, Rs. 396, 696 for the creation of the official logo and newspaper advertisements, Rs. 10 million for the entertainment of local and foreign journalists including the provision of dinner for them.
Raising a supplementary question, Mr. Dissanayake said it was amazing that as much as Rs.10 million had been spent for the entertainment of journalists.
"I was taken aback to hear it. These details have surfaced because of the election of a new government. Otherwise, these details would have been concealed or suppressed," he said.
The Minister, who is also the Chief Government Whip, said he too could not believe it.
"Let’s hope we will not hear such waste of public funds in the future. There are no bills to support some expenses," he said.(Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera)
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