Mystery Man fixing tenders at Sports Ministry
A mysterious man who always hangs around the Sports Ministry Engineering Department is said to be getting inside information and actively involved in fixing tenders in violation of the existing procedure in recent times, Ceylon Today reliably learns.
The mystery man is neither an official nor in any way attached to the Sports Ministry in any capacity, but most of the time can be seen hanging around the Ministry at Race Course in the waiting area, canteen or inside the Engineering Department.
He has been seen involved in even discussions related to tenders at the Engineering Department where he gets first hand information about up-coming tenders, about the requirements and guidelines, while also said to be involved in tender fixing by tailoring some of the tenders for his favourite bidders using his inside information and connections with top officials at the Sports Ministry Engineering Department.
According to reliable sources, the said man has been seen in the Ministry premises for years now, even before the appointment of the present Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, where it’s learnt that Minister has no idea about the said man’s involvement in tender fixing.
Sports Ministry has been involved in projects worth several billions of rupees during the past few years. They have handled synthetic track tenders at Sugathadasa, Rathnapura and Matale together with several district development projects.
Also, the National Budget presented recently indicates possible billions in tenders for the coming year as Sri Lanka is set to host the 2020 South Asian Games at Diyagama Sports Complex, which will go through complete refurbishing with two new synthetic tracks, athletes village, swimming pool and other development facilities. For 2018 the budget has allocated 1.5 billion rupees for Diyagama development. Apart from that a further allocation of Rs. 1.2 billion has been provided for Sugathadasa outdoor refurbishment, which mainly involves refurbishing spectator stands together with 400 million to Matale Hockey Stadium development etc.
All these projects will be offered by tender through Sports Ministry Engineering Department where the mystery man is involved in.