Palms oiled for lubricants

By Jayashika Padmasiri

Adding to the controversy regarding the hedging deal where the country lost millions, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation(CPC) is neck deep in corruption. Many senior officers of the CPC are heavily involved in making a quick buck on slick oil deals. Their hands are well ‘greased’ with cutbacks and commissions from various oily characters....
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is involved in importing unmarketable lubricant oil products from Malaysia due to influence of certain individuals in order to earn huge commissions. These unmarketable products that have been imported are now lying in go-downs and land belonging to the CPC in Muthurajawela.

Loss of lives

Nations have fought over oil and in many instances this has caused immense loss of lives. However, where Sri Lanka is concerned the story is different. Last week the price of petrol was reduced by Rs 15. Many called this another chanda gunduwa (election stunt) while some others hailed it as long overdue. Nevertheless, LAKBIMAnEWS came accross large scale fraud and corruption involving high ranking officials of the CPC. However, many of those who clarified or gave information wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. A reliable inside source at CPC said that high ranking officials of the CPC had imported millions worth of lubricant products, much more than the market demanded, and stored the entire stock at Muthurajawela purely to earn “commissions”. They were well aware that the lubricant oil did not serve any purpose . The products had been imported from the Malaysian based, Hyrax Oil SDN BHD. Some of the products are simply not in demand in Sri Lanka, he said.
“These barrels and cans full of oil are kept there as most of the oil products do not have a demand in the open market. They were purchased and imported without a market survey, study or even without a proper survey of prevailing prices. Now they are lying idle in the stores because the authorities have failed to provide suitable storage facilities”, he said.
However, these lubricant products continue to auccumulate as the costs also keeps multiplying by the day. According to inside sources of the CPC, the CPC internal audit unit had also conducted an investigation on this matter and had discovered some lubricant barrels which are reportedly said to have holes in them.
Meanwhile, another CPC source revealed that many projects were launched spending millions but were halted midway and were never completed.

Launching ceremonies

“We want to know what has happened to all that money. In another tamasha season, massive launching ceremonies were held at the CPC spending millions introducing these new projects but soon after, not one of the projects were put into operation. We hold the minister, permanent secretary of the ministry and other relevant authorities responsible for all that is going on at the CPC. What we cannot understand is, why it is wrong for a worker to ask for an increase in monthly wages, when, the people in authority are committing such wanton waste?” he questioned.
According to this same source, a year and a half ago the CPC had launched a project called R-87, where petrol was to be imported for three-wheelers at low cost. This project he said was launched spending Rs 2,500,000 but was terminated after the launching ceremony where only 25 three-wheelers were presented with five litre cans of this oil.
Another such project LAKBIMAnEWS came across initiated by the CPC was the mobile filling plant which was situated in Sapugaskanda a year ago at a cost of Rs.20 million, ostensibly for supply of LPG gas at cheaper prices. This gas plant is also not functional as the CPC has no gas cylinders of their own .
Furthermore it is claimed that “bunkering’ was done during the past year where fuel was taken from Kolonnawa and provided at cheaper prices to ships before they entered the port to help them evade tax., thus depriving the state of much needed revenue.
This caused a total loss of Rs.400 million to the CPC but the practise was later put to an end by the present Chairman of CPC, Asoka Thoradeniya.
Meanwhile, the lubricant sector shows a Rs.8.3 million profit for six months ending 30/09/2009. But CPC workers say that some of the officers who are in the Marketing division for Lubricant Oil do not have any experience in marketing lubricants and have been recruited purely on the basis of influence of high ranking officers and politicians. Workers attribute this as the reason CPC is not the market leader in the lubricant business in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, when LAKBIMA-nEWS spoke to CPC Chairman Asoka Thoradeniya about the imported lubricant products which did not serve any purpose and are lying idle now.
He however, refused to comment saying that he was not the chairman during the time these products were imported. All efforts to contact the Minister in charge, A.H.M. Fowzie proved futile.