By Saman Indrajith
Ex-President and Polonnaruwa District MP Maitripala Sirisena, in Parliament, on Tuesday, denied media reports that he and Mahinda Rajapaksa, as former presidents, had spent colossal amounts of public money to maintain their personal staff.
Sirisena said that the amounts mentioned in the reports had been calculated wrongly.
The media reports on the basis of information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his second term, 2010-2014, had spent Rs 638,107,941.84 for the maintenance of private staff. During the relevant period, his personal staff consisted of 2,578 people. They also revealed that Sirisena had spent more money on his personal staff than President Mahinda Rajapaksa. During the period, between 2015 and 2019, Sirisena had spent Rs 850,326,968.14 public money for the maintenance of his personal staff, consisting of 1,378 persons.
Sirisena said the figures were wrong because persons recruited by others had been bracketed with his team.
He said that he had implemented many projects as the President and no other president could match his record in terms of the number of projects. National Environment programme, National Kidney Disease Prevention Programme, Smart Sri Lanka programme, Daruwan Surakimu Programme and Grama Shakthi were some of them, Sirisena said. He added that those who had worked in those projects, too, had been considered as members of his personal staff.
The former President requested the Speaker to conduct an impartial investigation into his complaint and called on the media to publish his rebuttal.