The Agriculture Ministry is in the process of taking legal measures against the renting of the building at Rajagiriya for the Agriculture Ministry paying a monthly rental of Rs 23 million during the former UNP led government, Agriculture State Minister Vidura Wickramanayake said in Parliament yesterday.
State Minister Wickramanayake said that the lawyers are studying the matter in detail at this stage before filing the case.
He added this is massive corruption and deliberate fraud and that stringent measures would be taken to bring all those officers and politicians involved in this scam to book.
Wickramanayake said that this government will not tolerate this scale of corruption and added that the ministry was shifted to a government building at 8.37 a.m. yesterday (23).
He added the rest of the offices too would be shifted soon and that the rented out building had not been of any service to the farmers.
He made these observations in response to a supplementary question raised by JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayke in relation to a question raised by MP Hesha Vithanage during the round of oral questions.
MP Dissanayake said that the previous regime rented out the building owned by film actress Sabeetha Perera’s husband at a rent of Rs.21 million plus VAT. He added that altogether the Ministry had to pay a sum of Rs.23 million a month. He asked if the government would take measures to stop it.
(Daily News)