Minister of Rural Development,

"The main problem that is affecting the rural youth is the lack of capital to start their own business, whatever it may be. The traditional system is to get loans to start whatever enterprise, but the problem with it is that the person who gets a loan will most probably utilise the money for his/her personal use and at the end of the day he/she will not have sufficient capital to start the enterprise. That is a fact. Our aim is to give them what they need. Say for example a man needs a tractor to cultivate his land, we will give him the tractor, but he'll have to start paying back the cost of the tractor once he starts making profits. There will be no interest to pay as well.

The plan right now is to go to other nations to collect funds so that we can start this venture capital development programme as soon as possible.

The other thing that we will see to is to turn Paanaluwa state printing press into an industrial park to get the maximum use of the land there.

We will also have Thuru Sevena sales promotion centres for plants in several central points in and around the city. There's obviously a problem in marketing village/rural products so to remedy that we decided to have fairs and exhibitions to promote this. So far we've had one in Vihara Maha Devi Park in Colombo, the next is in Gampaha, and the other will be held in Kalutara."

Minister of Health,

"We will upgrade the quality of service in private and government sector medical institutions. First the institutions in Sri Lanka must be categorised. So far, there are 7 - 8 medical sectors in the country. With the consent of the provincial council, we plan to reduce the medical sectors into five. After that, the ministry will take steps to improve the health sector.

The next part is to concentrate on nutrition which comes under three categories; post and pre-natal nutrition and children below three. This has to be done at village level. To make this a success, the ministry will have to get every member of the medical sector -- village and urban -- involved. This will be a grassroot level effort.

The third is to look into the problems of families where mothers have gone abroad. More often than not, we find children in these families lacking proper care. There are over 100,000 mothers working abroad.

The ministry has other plans to improve the health sector -- providing the much needed equipment and appliances to hospitals. Also, at present, there is a shortage of middle level medical officials (pharmacists, X-ray technicians, etc.) This problem should be answered fast as Sri Lanka does not even have 50% of the requirement. Most of these medical officials are lost to the western market; therefore, we have to take steps to produce more."

Minister of Trade and Consumer Affairs,

"We have a large number of plans, however, the priorities are privatising Sathosa (CWE) outlets which will be open 24 hours so that pharmacies, telecommunications, and food items -- like fruits and vegetables -- and other facilities will be readily available round the clock."

"There will also be a complaints counter. The registration of companies will be computerised by March 1 and there will also be a registration of companies act prepared.

"Furthermore, we will build a consumer protection bill within two months. The import control department will be professionalised and permit oriented trade will also be reduced. Salu Sala will be made to compete with other shops while state trade will be made to compete with other organisations in some duty free items. The Army, Police and Air Force uniforms will be done here and Mahapola will tie up with foreign universities."

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources,

"The vision of the environment ministry during the 100 day programme is to provide a healthy and pleasant environment sustaining nature for the well-being of the people and the economy. The mission will be to provide leadership to manage the environment and natural resources to ensure national commitment for sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations.

The priorities of the 100 day programme are, to achieve effective environmental good governance, manage land resources to maintain and enhance their quality and future needs, manage quality and quantity of water resources for current and future needs, improve bio-diversity, natural and cultural resources, manage waste streams to improve the environmental quality and minimise public health risks and to use clean production as a means of promoting efficiency.

Provisions to enjoy quality air resources and minimising the risk of climate change will also be looked into during the programme."

The Minister of Fisheries and Ocean

"The ministry has identified a number of activities for the 100-day programme for implementation under the six year development plan of the ministry.

The proposal for the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation is to strengthen the capability of the corporation in fishing activities in collaboration with foreign and local investors. The Coastal Resources Management in collaboration with the Coast Conservation Department will undertake the construction of 1000 metres of revetments. The Ceylon Fishery harbours Corporation will initiate joint ventures with private investors to develop anchorages while the Coast Conservation Department will implement a beach access and restoration programme in Mount Lavinia.

The Department of Fisheries will handle the preparation of a new fisheries act and the re-organisation of the Department of Fisheries and Ocean Resources. The proposal for the Fisheries Export Development Division of the Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources is the making of a video film on factors contributing to the wastage of fish.

The National Aquaculture Development Authority will undertake utilisation of 10 village tanks and the construction of commercial fish ponds with the collaboration of the private sector while the Social Development Division of the Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources will conduct a 30 day training programme for women."

Minister of Lands,

"Areas that need urgent attention in the ministry are allocating land to the landless and the encroachers. For our 100 day programme we have earmarked 1000 acres of land which will be distributed among the landless and poor people of the country. In collaboration with the Ministry of Housing 10,000 houses will be built on the land granted by us."

Minister of Tourism,

"The 100 day programme has been divided into three parts; part one is to promote domestic tourism by giving a face-lift to the Hotel Corporation resorts to give a better service to the domestic and foreign tourists. Part two is to revive foreign tourism. Firstly we will study the problem and then start to promote Sri Lanka in the UK and Indian markets with the help of the private sector thereby expanding tourism related employment opportunities for our youth. We will also attract tourists by offering special offers and incentives, keeping the individual preference in mind.

Finally we have so many hotel school qualified youth who are without jobs at the moment. The Tourist Board will work in collaboration with the Foreign Employment Bureau and the Merchant Navy to find employment for them. We are presently discussing this."

Minister of Port Development and Shipping,

"Areas that need attention in the ministry are provision of facilities to handle larger ships with a large gate at the end of the Colombo Port, and a common user multi-purpose alongside berth in the Port of Trincomalee. We also need to do an Environmental Impact Assessment in the Port of Oluvil and work out a fast track development strategy for the Port of Hambantota, which is thought to be an ex generation port.

The development of the Colombo South harbour is also something that needs urgent attention. Other areas that need attention are, improving the cargo handling operations and facilities, improving efficiency in the floating craft repair activities, trade facilitation - removal of war risk premium, shifting of handling the all CCL cargo to the Peliyagoda freight station, a feasibility study on setting up duty free shops for visitors of the South Asian Region, introducing an internet cybercafe for a port wide network, employee welfare facilities where setting up of pilgrim rests for employees will be looked into and developing the human resource and management training division."

Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Development,

"Under the100 day programme the ministry will conduct agricultural extension programmes under the Agro, wells project, to promote subsidiary food crop cultivation in Mahawa, Kurunegala. Conducting an irrigation systems maintenance programme for cleaning and repairing the irrigation channels, training programme in water management in Indipitiya, Menikwewa and Paluwewa, construction of toilets for 50 farmer families, the introduction of a bee keeping development programme, enrolling 1000 export agriculture crop growers under a crop insurance scheme, new district offices for Nuwara Eliya and Galle districts, training 600 farmers in 14 districts as pre-preparation for the Yala season, issuing of 50 cinnamon peeling machines to selected cinnamon growers. Providing technical assistance establishing a factory for organically processed pineapple, to establish a certified organic factory to process bottling and canning lime, tamarind and fruits for the export market, promoting and providing techinal asistance to establish 'Health Food Counters' at super markets in Colombo, introduction of a kurakkan (52%) based breakfast cereal to the market and the introduction of indegenous red rice (wild rice) to international exhibitions and buyers are in the pipeline."

Interviews by Risidra Mendis, Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, Shalindra Seneviratne and Marianne David

By Frederica Jansz

The new Minister for Power and Energy, the calm and collected Karu Jayasuriya has set yet another deadline - which none doubt he'll keep. This time he has promised to resign from his portfolio if he fails to resolve the present power crisis by June 30, this year.

Jayasuriya certainly believes in deadlines. This country was witness to the present minister keeping his word and resigning from the office of the Mayor of Colombo when he made a similar pledge.

Unfortunately, resignations of this nature do not always serve the principle intended. The continuing power cuts with threats of further extended blackouts has reduced this nation to despair. This sense of hopelessness has now permeated and spread to the engineers employed by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). Constant and regular bureaucratic bungling and political fiddling has finally reduced the CEB to bankruptcy and this nation to a constant scenario of blackouts.

The need of the hour, needless to say, is not for the new minister to resign his portfolio if his resolution to solve the power crisis fails, come June 30. This country desperately needs men of the calibre of Karu Jayasuriya who should ensure that busy schedules do not interfere with a problem that requires his full and urgent attention.

While this country doubtless requires a long term policy that will end the power crisis, Jayasuriya needs to interact even daily if necessary with engineers at the CEB and work out a practical plan that will help resolve the power crisis not in the next 180 days but in the next 14 days.

Rain, rain, come again!

It is not prayers to the rain gods that are required but good, hard policy decisions that will help lift the CEB out of the present quagmire it is in.

Why on earth is Jayasuriya allowing the General Manager of the CEB D. C. Wijeyratne to run around the hydro power dams in this country with a 'Manthara Hamuduruwo' from the Kataragama Wadihitikanda to take a free trip around the reservoirs chanting manthrams?

As GM for the CEB, this country expects Wijeyratne to be working out feasible, across-the- table negotiations, to even buy emergency power and help resolve this crisis. Angry engineers at the CEB confided to The Sunday Leader that instead, Wijeyratne, during the weekend of January 12 and 13, in a desperate bid to resolve the present power crisis had visited Kataragama and bathed in water mixed with saffron. Thereafter he together with the Welfare Officer of the CEB wore robes and walked around with a fire chatty on their heads. While nobody faults Wijeyratne for his religious beliefs, the reality of the day is that despite his earnest entreaties to the rain gods - the heavens did not open.

On January 4, this year the 'Manthara Hamuduruwo' was taken to Kotmale and the Victoria dams using an official CEB vehicle bearing no. 65-1614. A total of 1200km was covered on this trip, at state expense.

Later, on January 10, the Manthara Hamuduruwo was taken to Laxapana and Samanalawewa. By Thursday January 17, 2002 they had not yet returned. This time too, an all expenses trip using an official CEB vehicle bearing registration no. 65-1619 was used.

Unfortunately for Wijeyratne and this country, the Hamuduruwo, was involved in committing offenses of a sexual nature to young girls - so much so, the incident evolved into legal proceedings. A senior CEB engineer, tongue in cheek had this to say. "We now fear that angry Gods will make the water situation in the reservoirs worse -deepening the power crisis." So much for manthrams - the rains have still failed.

Always breakdown

When Jayasuriya gave his 180-day deadline to resolve the power crisis - it is not certain if he verified the reality of the present situation with experienced personnel. Engineers at the CEB, who would doubtless have told him that given the present scenario the possibilities ten to one, are that the Minister will have to go, come June 30th. Jayasuriya when he took office on January 3, this year was told that the Gas turbine 7 (GT7) will be ready by March this year. The fact of the matter is that this plant has been a failure from the day it was installed. Mr. D C Wijeratne was the Chairman of the Technical Evaluation Committee that recommended this plant.

To put the matter in a nutshell a gas turbine should obviously be operated with gas. However this gas turbine operates with oil. Engineers point out that this is the reason for its failure to operate consistently.

This machine has been subjected to constant breakdowns. Each time the machine failed foreign experts were invited to help repair the machine. The repairs were never permanent.

In August/September last year the GT7 gas turbine broke down once more. Outstanding payments that were due to foreign engineers resulted in these experts refusing to come down to Sri Lanka until their monies were paid. The machine lay unattended.

Wijeyratne and the former Secretary for Power and Energy Jaliya Medagama finally reached a compromise with foreign experts who ultimately arrived. Local engineers however say that this plant will not be reliable. At the height of power crisis, the former minister Anuruddha Ratwatte ordered an inquiry to find out who was responsible for recommending the GT7. Mr. D C Wijeratne and Jaliya Medagama jointly recommended this machine to the CEB.

Meanwhile, D. V. E. N. Fernando the AGM (Generation) wanted to cash the performance bonds of the GT7 machine due to its failure to perform. These bonds were valids upto December 28, 2001.

The bonds however were never cashed. The agents for the machine, 'Fiat' threatened the CEB that if the bonds were cashed they would not attend to the repairs. The loss to the CEB as a result exceeds 400 million rupees.

The other issue is the JIBC Combined Cycle Power Plant. Senior Engineers at the CEB claim that this was one of the most fraudulent 'deals' concluded at the CEB.

A. A. P. P. Seneviratne, former GM for the CEB, was Chairman of the Technical Evaluation Committee which recommended the JBIC combined cycle power plant. This newspaper has already proved in a previous article how Seneviratne made his money while being GM of the CEB - wheeler dealing his way through projects and having fat commissions credited to a joint bank account he shares with his spouse.

All island power failure

The fraud over this deal involved the payment of a 20% mobilisation advance despite the statutory limits being at only 10%. Seneviratne kept quiet about this until the COPE meeting last year where he met his waterloo. Seneviratne has argued that this enhanced mobilisation fee was paid to complete the project ahead of time due to the power crisis. The plant however is not yet ready. According to the systems control engineers and the combine cycle project engineer the reliability runs have not yet even begun.

In fact a breakdown of this plant just a few days after the elections of December 5, 2001 caused an all island power failure. Another scandal brewing at the CEB is the Micro SCADA. The story surrounding this deal goes thus. A tender was floated to upgrade the Supervisory Control and Data Accusation (SCADA) of the system control. The bids were called in April 1994. After an exhaustive analysis and negotiations, the cabinet of ministers by their reference 98/272/20/015/TBR dated March 18, 1998 approved the award of the tender to M/s G E Harris Energy System Controls of the USA. The project cost was valued at US $5,505,363 ( SLRs. 21,092,915.00.)

The original SCADA system installed in 1983/84 in the CEB was by ABB Switzerland. In January 1999 there was a breakdown of the Systems Control Centre. Immediately ABB Engineers were summoned to attend to the breakdowns. ABB proposed that they should install a micro SCADA system and made emphasis that this should be done immediately since the Y2K problem was envisaged to occur by January 1, 2000. A contract worth Rs. 75 Million was awarded to ABB to purchase two computers with the necessary software. What is important to note here is that the G E Harris offer had all the facilities for the Y2K problem. Instead however a rush purchase was made from ABB and at an exorbitant price.

Six remote terminal units (RTU) were also purchased and connected to the micro SCADA system. The cost of this was Rs. 59 Million.

The new Chairman of the CEB, M. Prelis, unfortunately can work only on a part time basis as he has his own business at the Nations Trust Bank. Needless to say the CEB needs a full time Chairman and a Vice-Chairman. The challenges are enormous. The staggering state institution urgently requires a more dynamic and permanent set of officers. Over to you Mr. Minister.

By Amantha Perera

Since the formation of the UNF government The Sunday Leader has been advocating that the new government should really take a long hard look at the privatisation deals that have been carried through with the blessings of the Public Enterprises Reform Commission (PERC).

Four agreements should be gone into and laid to rest once and for all. Air Lanka, Sri Lanka Telecom and Shell, all three signed under the PA. But, the UNP, despite its track record as a better economic manager was the party who set the ball moving.

The privatisation of Lanka Lubricants took place in July 1994, just as the UNP was dumped by the voters who welcomed the PA as the be all and the end all. The PA did its little bit for the deal when it amended several clauses and allowed other importers of lubricants to enter the local market. That was in 1999.

Lanka Lubricants was sold to Caltex Trading, Dubai for US $ 4.9 million and two installments of US $ 2.65 million. Like in all the other cases, here too Caltex was guaranteed a monopoly by the agreement that the UNP signed in 1994.

Several clauses in the deal make sure that no other party can take on Caltex, which on the estimates of their officers, enjoys a market share of 92% to 97% while six other competitors fight out for the remainder. Article seven of the agreement involves the guarantees. The agreement guarantees, "the government will extend tariff protection," in the face of competition. The government would guarantee at least a 10% price deference to Caltex, which is per the agreement, but in reality the difference has been much more.

No company can sell or import lubricants below the factory price of Caltex and if that is the case, the government will make sure that the difference would be added on as a tax. The agreement also includes a clause that Caltex would have the services of all service stations coming under the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Sometime ago its competitors alleged that Caltex was using its market might to stop vendors from selling their products. They have since reverted to marketing their products at sports shops, supermarkets and CWE outlets. The Caltex deal will run through till 2004.

Caltex today has become one of the largest profit making entities in Sri Lanka purely because it secured the deal, where one bidder was none other than Shell. In 1999 however the government decided to allow others to import lubricants while Caltex still had the sole right to import raw material and process. Though ostensibly it was a move to liberalise, no such thing happened.

The process hit a snag right at the beginning, when the government wanted Rs 50 million as license fee. The intended licensees went to court and brought down the price to Rs 5 million. There were six licensees, including Mobil, Shell, and Castrol. However none of these players were ready to face the situation that evolved.

"It was our mistake that we did not push enough so those clauses were removed or nullified," a high ranking source from one of Caltex's competitors told The Sunday Leader. Even though the agreement with Caltex included guarantee clauses, the licensing agreements did not include any such insurance clause.

The new licensees did not expect to get the same tax benefits as Caltex, in fact they had calculated that their products would be 12% above Caltex prices in landed cost. They were in for a painful shock.

In January 2000 just one month after the licensees were granted the difference was 18%, after the budget 2000 it went up to 25%.

The real time effect and the costs that the Sri Lankan public has to bear due to the tariff protection clauses were clear when the Ceylon Electricity Board last June called for tenders for oil for its Pielstik engines. Three bids were short-listed. Caltex at Rs 81.83 (Taro), Rs 78.91, Shell Rs 87.33 and Mobil at Rs 77.67 per liter.

The three bids were opened in the presence of the bidders who went back to their offices with the thought that a transparent tender evaluation would take place. But that was the last they heard of the matter.

In September Mobil wrote to the chairman of the tender board seeking information on the tender. Silence prevailed.

After several representations made to the Ministry of Power and Energy, in October the vice chairman of the CEB informed Mobil that a decision had been made to purchase the lubricants from Caltex as they enjoyed a tariff protection clause in the agreement with the government and that the tender itself has been cancelled.

Mobil was informed that if it needed further clarifications it should address its queries to the Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy, which came under the purview of Anurudha Rattwatte at that time. The queries went unanswered.

The CEB requirement was calculated to be approximately 2 million litres per year valued at Rs 150 million and the agreement made sure that the CEB paid more while cheaper rates were available. The actual price difference between the quoted price in the tender and the final supply price is estimated to be in the range of 25%.

The licensees even had problems when they wanted to make representations to PERC. One meeting with one of the two top rankers in PERC lasted just 10 minutes after two hours of waiting and the final result was that he would look into their grievances. And that was it.

With the arrival of the new UNF government, the six licenses have once again begun to make representations. The appeals have gone to every one from Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya to Secretary to the Treasury Charitha Ratwatte. One such appeal went to Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake who agreed to meet the representative.

Though the lubricant industry does not come directly under Karunanayake's ministry, the Fair Trading Commission does and it is through the commission that Karunanayake can at least hope to correct the imbalances of the lubricant market.

More than creating a one sided market, such privileged treatment sends the wrong signals to foreign investors.

When the Daily News carried a banner headline last week that the lubricant market would be liberalised, local representatives in Colombo got calls from the foreign principals as to what exactly was going on. "They had a problem trying to figure out why we were complaining that we could not operate in Sri Lanka while financial wire services were reporting the lubricant market was to be liberalised," one representative told The Sunday Leader. The services had picked up the story and filed it on their wires.

The story was a classic case of cart before the horse. While no discussions have taken place on the lubricant market, the story sent out the wrong signal that things were moving towards a level playing field. This is the second time since the government took office that this happened. It happened when there were screaming headlines that Air Lanka, Shell and SLT deals were to be investigated.

Let alone investigation, some government ministers handling finance had no idea how to take the first step.

However, some foreign players in the lubricant market are giants in a global sense and could do wonders to Sri Lanka's image if they come in big time. Take for instance Mobil whose principal Exxon Mobil was number one in the Fortune 500 list in 2000 with a net revenue of US $ 210 billion.

The Sunday Leader learns that Exxon Mobil has signaled that it would reconsider investment opportunities in Sri Lanka provided the right signals are sent. Unfortunately that has not begun to happen.

Once again it has been a case of one man trying to take on and take out a monopoly. Karunanayake has taken it upon himself that there should be no monopolies in Sri Lanka and he is moving as best that he could with limited yet welcome results. Hats off to him for at least trying, while others have been caught playing it safe.