Govt. moves WCT outside tender procedures
View(s):Eyebrows were raised over the tender procedures practised and processes adopted in assigning the West Container Terminal (WCT) by the government to the Adani Group and John Keells Holdings (JKH).
The Attorney General’s Department has raised a number of concerns regarding the development of the Colombo South Port in Sri Lanka – WCT and this had been discussed at a meeting held on March 4.
The AG’s Department had requested in a letter dated March 5, 2021 to the Ports and Shipping Ministry Secretary U.C. Jayalal to submit detailed observations with relevant documents on the basis on which the Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee (CANC) / Project Committee (PC) decided to deviate from the draft of the BOT Agreement attached to the RFP during the negotiations held with the investor .
In addition they also queried for justifications for the financial terms (i.e. Royalty, Tariffs, Fixed Lease Payments and Minimum Guaranteed Throughput etc) agreed by the CANC/PC, in view of the fact that competitive bidding process was not followed with regard to the project under consideration.
Further, it has been observed that in the negotiation minutes’ justifications for the position taken up by the CANC/PC are not indicated; and the draft shareholder agreement too need to be made available; in addition to whether or not the Lenders Direct Agreement will be entered into and the rights to be granted to the Lenders.
Following this, it is learnt there had been a direct intervention by the President’s Office when Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundera is said to have been personally present at a meeting held at the AG’s Department on March 8 when matters pertaining to the above concerns were once again taken up for discussion.
It is now interesting to see if ghosts of today will not haunt the future when like the Lanka Marine Services deal, the Waters’ Edge and Sri Lanka Insurance cases, these same companies might face a similar predicament in time to come.
The government claimed during the initial stages of this agreement that the Government of India had agreed to be part of the WCT but this was refuted in a statement issued by the Indian External Affairs Ministry that described it as “factually incorrect.”
Sources indicated that the Indian government was not interested in the WCT unlike in the case of the East Container Terminal as the latter was a “trilateral government framework.” In contrast the WCT is an “investment proposal of public private partnership basis steered by the Sri Lankan government” and therefore the Indian government is not a party to the WCT.
Business Times contacted the Media Secretary to the AG’s Department Nishara Jayaratne who stated that they cannot comment about the WCT right now adding that “As far as I know there were no such issues.”
In a media release issued by the Adani Group on March 15, they stated that the company had “received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Ministry of Ports and Shipping of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, acting on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, pursuant to approval from the Sri Lankan Cabinet of Ministers for the development and operations of West Container Terminal (WCT) in Colombo, Sri Lanka.”