The Presidential Secretariat yesterday said allegations made by JVP MP Vijitha Herath that Rs.8000 million has been allocated for the President Maithripala Sirisena’s personal use and for his future activities in retirement is “completely false and baseless”.
The President Sirisena is slated to step down as President following the presidential election next month, when his successor is due to take up the presidency.
The President’s media division issuing a statement said: “It was reported in the media that on October 25th, during a news briefing Herath had stated that in addition Rs.2,400 million has been allocated to the president through a vote on account in parliament recently.
The President’s Secretariat emphasizes that “monies are not allocated for the personal use of any President who is in office or has vacated office but monies are only allocated to the Presidential Secretariat”. From the Expenditure Head of the current President a large portion of monies were allocated for the activities of the various Presidential task forces and other development programmes”.
The Presidential Secretariat said it “categorically denies malicious allegations made regarding allocation of monies for the President’s personal use”.
(Daily News)