• MP plays down request to Environment Minister
• Individual seeks CEO post at GSMB
• Rajapaksa says most MPs send recommendation letters
•   Insists final decision in hands of Minister 

By Easwaran Rutnam

Former Minister Namal Rajapaksa says he has given several recommendation letters to individuals and played down one such letter shared on social media. 

Concerns were raised on social media after a copy of a recommendation letter issued by Rajapaksa to Environment Minister Naseer Ahamed had surfaced.
The letter quotes Rajapaksa as requesting the Minister to consider appointing an individual from Tangalle as the Chief Executive Officer of the GSMB Technical Services (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary Company of the Geological Survey & Mines Bureau.

When contacted by Daily Mirror, Rajapaksa denied the allegation that he was attempting to influence the Minister to appoint someone proposed by him to the post.

The former Sports Minister said that he had only made a recommendation and that he has put forward several other similar recommendations in the past as well.

“The final decision is in the hands of the Minister and not me,” Rajapaksa said.

He said that a number of  people seek recommendation letters from him during the public day meetings and that similar requests are made to other MPs as well.

Rajapaksa said that as an MP and when he was a Cabinet Minister, he had issued several recommendation letters and that he had also received similar requests from other MPs as well.

“When I was a Minister I had also received letters asking me to consider appointing people to various posts,” he said.

Rajapaksa asserted that this was a normal practice and nothing new and that eventually the subject Minister decides on the most suitable person for the post based on the qualifications.