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This was revealed when former Director of the CID Shani Abeysekera testified before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Easter Sunday bombings on 21 April 2019, yesterday (26).

He said that he and then Senior DIG of the CID Ravi Seneviratne had informed Sirisena about this on 2 February, 2019 when they visited the former President's official residence at Paget Road in order to record a statement.  SDIG Seneviratne pointed out to the former President that the matter could not be taken lightly and that it should be discussed at the National Security Council (NSC). Then the former President said that an opportunity would be given to Seneviratne to attend the NSC in order to brief on the matter. However, such an opportunity was not given, he added.

Abeysekera also said that he had been asked by former Western Provincial Governor Azath Salley and President's Counsel Faizer Mustapha to release two suspects arrested in connection with the stock of explosives found in the Wanathawilluwa area and that he had rejected the request.

Testifying further, he said that information had come to light that a group, including National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) Leader Zaharan Hashim was planning a large scale attack in May 2019 and that the discovery of the explosives hidden in Wanathawilluwa had averted such a catastrophe.

Meanwhile, when a copy of a report dated 09 April, 2019, submitted to the then IGP, by the State Intelligence Service (SIS), stating that the NTJ could carry out a suicide attack, the witness said that he received it on 23 April, 2019, two days after the bombings. When asked what the reason for the delay was, the witness said that he had not inquired about it.

The Commission inquired at length about the stock of explosives discovered in Wanathawilluwa and Abeysekera said that he felt that a certain group was preparing to carry out some destructive action after the incident. He said that he had informed the then IGP Pujith Jayasundara in writing on three or four occasions in this connection.

Meanwhile, when the Commission questioned him on whether he was aware of the fact that then Coordinating Secretary to former Minister Kabir Hashim, Mohomed Thasleen, was being used as an informant by the CID, the witness said that he was not aware of it. He also said that no information would be provided to senior officials regarding informants.

The Commission also inquired from Abeysekera about the release of two suspects named Mohamed Nafridi and Mohamed Nafees who were arrested in connection with the explosives discovered in Wanathawilluwa. In response, he said he had made a recommendation to the then President to release the two suspects who were being held on detention orders as there wasn’t sufficient evidence against them.

"Accordingly, the suspects were released on six bail conditions on 10 April, 2019 and they appeared before the CID on the last Saturday of every month even after the Easter Sunday bombings," he said.

When asked if there was any pressure from the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) or from any politician to release the said two suspects, the witness said that there was no such pressure. He said that during a meeting, Salley and Mustapha had asked for their release, but he had refused.

Meanwhile, the Commission inquired about when he came to know about Zaharan, as Former Director of the CID. In reply he said he came to know about Zaharan on 17 January, 2019 following the interrogation of suspects arrested in connection with the Wanathawilluwa incident.

He added that he had learned that Zaharan was planning to commit a serious crime. In response to a question from the Commission as to why a team of officers was not deployed to arrest Zaharan, the witness said that the teams investigating the Wanathawilluwa and Mawanella incidents had been deployed full time to arrest Zaharan and other suspects involved in those incidents.

Meanwhile, the Commission asked the witness why the CID, which was able to arrest many significant suspects, was unable to arrest Zaharan. In response, he noted that criminals are usually arrested on the basis of their telephone data reports. However, he said that specific information was not received about the whereabouts of the Zaharan-led group because they used secret communication applications such as 'Threema'. He added that the CID was aware before 21 April, 2019 that they were using such communication methods. We looked into the applications but could not find enough information, said Abeysekera.

Meanwhile, when asked if he, as then CID Director was informed by the CID officers regarding the use of Bathiudeen Ahmed Mohammed alias Army Mohideen as an informant, the witness said that he came to know about it only after the Easter Sunday bombings.

Non-compliance with the Finance Act In pursuance of Section 10 (5) of the Finance Act No. 38 of 1971 is a violation of its obligation to credit the balance money of the surplus of net profit to the treasury fund.

If there is a surplus in a public corporation for a certain year, the balance should be credited to the Consolidated Fund after making deductions specified in the Act.

Nevertheless, out of the total net profit of Rs. 30,253 million received by the SLPA from 2016 to 2019, only Rs. 600 million had been credited to the Consolidated Fund.

Further, the above profit included a total rent of Rs. 8,514 million relevant to the period from 2016 to 2019 received from the two companies engaged in the operations at South Asian Gateway Terminal (SAGT) and the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

The two terminals were given on long-term lease basis to the private sector and Rs. 11,250 million collected as royalty for that period.

It was further revealed that the above revenue was not the direct operating revenue of the port.

According to the information received from the Deputy General Manager (Premises) Letter No. 1/1/156 dated 13 July 2020, the Authority had leased 236 acres, 32.74 Perches and 375.44 square meters of land without obtaining an assessed value from the Department of Valuation as at 31 December 2019.

The Colombo International Container Terminal (C.I.C.T) is the only container terminal currently operating at the Colombo Port that can handle ships over 14.25 meter in depth (Dratf).

The capacity thereof is 2.4 million of twenty equivalent units per year. A number of 374 ships with a draft of more than 14.25 meters had arrived at the terminal and a total of more than 2.6 million container units had been handled in 2019.

It was observed that the maximum capacity was also exceeded. Accordingly, the container handling of the terminal had increased by 8 per cent compared to 2018.

The recession-hit Sri Lanka Treasury is grappling to drive economic growth towards 5 to 6 per cent of GDP this year amidst current fiscal woes, Finance Ministry sources said.

“Climate change has played a part in a shrinking national harvest which peaked at 340 million kilograms in 2013. Since then, it’s been a steady slide but the 2020 crash cannot be attributed entirely to the hot, dry conditions experienced from January to April, thereafter the weather improved and crops were increasing when high grown production was disrupted by workers who stayed away mourning the passing of their senior union leader,” the report stated.

Turkey was the highest buyer of Ceylon tea amounting to 38.8 million kilograms with Iraq coming in next at 33.3 million kilograms and Russia and Iran purchasing 29.6 million kilograms and 15.1 million kilograms respectively. China had purchased 14.1 million kilograms last year.

Sri Lanka’s electricity demand, sales and investment needs are growing rapidly compelling the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to increase end user tariff making it cost effective, and expedite the implementation of power plants.This was highlighted in the Asian Development Bank funded power sector assessment report.

The peak demand was forecasted to cross 3,000 MW by 2020 and reach 4,800 MW by 2030, the report disclosed.

According to findings and forecasts of a Asian Development Bank funded report, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will have to incur a massive loss of LKR 436 billion for the period of 2021 to 2023 for emergency power purchasing from independent power producers (IPPs).

A proposal has already been made to purchase 800 megawatts of power from these private power producers this year without calling for tenders.

The CEB System Control is deciding on the most feasible option to purchase power using the available data manually.

This method of power purchasing has opened the floodgates for corruption and irregularities as identifying the least cost method and viable option based on the available data cannot be cannot be carried out manually and it requires relevant software, it was stated.

The CEB plans indicate the investment requirements for power generation to be USD 2400 million from 2020–2025 to meet the growing demand at the lowest cost, the report added.

The capacity shortage has to be resolved by building larger power plants. The CEB has proposed that the two cancelled coal-fired power plants be revived and built using the latest technology.

Additionally, two combined cycle power plants are required to be built to cater to seasonal shortages of hydro power.

“Matching investments are required for transmission estimated to be USD 320 million and in distribution (to serve the growing demand and to improve reliability of supply to customers) a further USD 60 million,” the report said.

Around 69 per cent of the total installed capacity in the country is owned by CEB; while IPPs and small power producers (SPPs) own the rest.

All IPPs are diesel-fired, operating on 10 to 20 year power purchase agreements. All SPPs are renewable energy-based, with 15 or 20 year contracts.

In order to offset this massive loss, the Ministry of Power has no alternative other than increasing electricity tariff by at least LKR 2.50 per unit for this period, the report recommended.

Emergency power purchasing at higher rates from IPPs has now become a significant burden to the economy. Annual purchases of power average from LKR 160 billion to LKR 200 billion.

When the CEB purchases at higher rates, the party involved with the transaction gains a commission for supporting the business, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection alleged.

The higher the margin between the buying and selling rate, the higher these parties gain, it said.