President dissolves task force on continetal shelf

By Natasha Gunaratne

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has dissolved a task force appointed to study and demarcate Sri Lanka’s continental shelf amidst allegation of mismanagement of funds allocated to it , The Sunday Times reliably learns.

The task force headed by Dr. N. Wijeyananda has been replaced by a committee co-chaired by Hiran Jayewardene and Chris Pinto Moragoda and comprising Chris Dharmakirti, Chief Operating Officer of the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) and Neil De Silva, Director General of the Petroleum Resources Division Secretariat.

At a meeting with President Rajapaksa last week, Dr. Wijeyananda was asked to explain how the task force – also known as Delimitation Commission DECOM – spent Rs.85 million allocated for the project. Members of the newly formed Committee also attended the meeting.

Dr. Wijeyananda was appointed to head the DECOM by the then foreign minister Tyronne Fernando. DECOM was formed following a contract signed in June 2001 between the National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA), the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) and Ocean Geo Consultants, a Norwegian firm.

Officials alleged that the company received excessive and unjustifiable payments as part of the agreement.