Rs 15-20mn fraud when purchasing 2 ships : Deputy Minister Nalin Bandara

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Nalin Bandara, Deputy Minister of Development Strategies & International Trade noted that he has received intelligence on the purchase of two ships Ceylon Breeze and Ceylon Princess, which are owned by Ceylon Shipping Corporation. He added that he had lodged a complaint with the FCID in this regard. He went on to note that the vessels were purchased at an expense of close to Rs 75mn from China, however, he added that officials at the time had estimated that its actual value was Rs 55-60 mn. He stated that nearly Rs 15-20 mn had been misused in the transaction. He went on to note that the vessels were bought with a loan obtained from Bank of Ceylon and the bank has been driven to a crisis since the transaction along with the Shipping Corporation. The deputy minister added that a case has been filed against this incident at the Colombo Magistrates Court and according to the information they have uncovered, it proves that money was transferred from a Dubai based bank account owned by a Chinese national. The Minister noted that to whom the money was transferred has been revealed as well.  He added that an official at the time had received an amount of US$ 750,000 from the account of a Chinese national. He further added that money had also been transferred to several bank accounts based in Australia. News 1st reported about the revelation made by State Minister Nalin Bandara on August 24th. News 1st reported that serious corruption had taken place while purchasing two ships for the Ceylon Shipping Corporation between 2015 - 2016. The Ceylon Shipping Corporation in 2015/2016 purchased two ships namely the Ceylon Breeze and Ceylon Princess each at a cost of US$ 35 million. According to facts presented to the Fort Magistrate's Court, the FCID using data from CW Kellock recognized ship valuers, uncovered the value of a ship between 2014/2015 was just US$ 20 million. FCID also uncovered the Price Committee and Project Committee in Sri Lanka had estimated the value of the ship to be US$ 26 million. The report showed that ships were purchased using a loan of US$ 35 million per ship from Bank of Ceylon.