Former Ceylon Electricity Board Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando was summoned before the COPE Committee yesterday for a clarification on his previous statement pertaining to the Adani wind power project agreement.
The decision was taken by the COPE Committee over the withdrawal of a statement made by the former Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board, M.M.C. Ferdinando.
Accordingly, Ferdinando was summoned before the COPE Committee yesterday (23).
The Committee’s sittings commenced after receiving an affidavit confirming that the statement made by Ferdinando was true and correct. The letter addressed to the COPE Committee by the former Chairman of the Electricity Board M.M.C.Ferdinando on 2022.06.11 was tabled.
Following a lengthy discussion,the COPE Committee decided to approve Ferdinando’s request to remove a few words from the statement made by the then Chairman of the Electricity Board at the COPE Committee meeting held on 10.06.2022.
Ferdinando admitted that what he mentioned in his letter dated 10-06-22 stating that he was pressured at the COPE Committee meeting and unfairly accused, was a wrong statement.
The COPE Committee conducted a lengthy and in-depth investigation into the second and third paragraphs of Ferdinando’s Annexure No. 25, 2021. Accordingly, the Committee elaborated on how the Solar and Wind Renewable Energy Project (Adani Greene Energy Limited), which is said to be operational in Mannar and Poonaryn, was started.
The Committee inquired as to whether the then Prime Minister had made any direction to accept this project as a project between the two Governments as mentioned in Chapter 2 of the Annexure.
In response, Ferdinando acknowledged that the government’s politically authoritative guidelines were accepted as directives. Accordingly, he said he understood it to be a consensual project between the two states.
The COPE Chairman said that there were two views on the issue, as the project was considered a project between two governments but was not accepted by a majority of the committee’s members.
Ferdinando said the decision on whether the project was between two governments was a cabinet decision and that no such decision had been made on the project.
Another COPE member raised an issue that according to Ferdinando’s annexed letter, due to his understanding of the discussions between the president and the prime minister, this project has been documented as a project between two countries. He also said that in the absence of any written evidence that the Adani Green Energy project represents the Indian state or a joint statement between the two countries, it would be problematic to determine it as a project between the two countries.
With this emphasis, the committee concluded its investigation and decided to discuss the process related to this project with the CEB’s future investigations.
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