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Follow PA example, CBK tells Ranil
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has advised the cabinet to follow proper procedures regarding award of contracts as done by the former PA government.
The advice was given in a note to the cabinet this week by the President when Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe sought cabinet approval to buy 200 Mw power for a medium-term project.

President Kumaratunga in her note sent from Kuala Lumpur, where she was attending the Non Aligned Movement summit said she was suggesting that comprehensive accounts of the tenders should be called, responses received and evaluations submitted to the cabinet for approval before any decision was taken.

''I wish to remind the Cabinet of Ministers, once more, that this is the procedure consistently followed by my government, for seven and a half years," she said.

The President drawing attention to a previous observation on a cabinet memorandum said reliance on emergency power had ruined the CEB in the past and that if it continued would do so in the future too. “I suggested that the Cabinet obtains an independent expert opinion before the procurement of 100 Mw electricity recommended in that memorandum.

However, the present note is to procure not 100 but 200 Mw of emergency power. Apparently the Minister does not consider 'any further expert opinion' necessary and the Economic Sub Committee of the cabinet, considers it necessary to double the quantum of procurement of emergency power," she said.

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