A group of officers of the Sri Lanka Police Department has submitted a petition against Police Media Spokesperson Mr. Nihal Talduwa. It is against taking the police media division to another place on a monthly rent of 14 lakhs of government money. We made several calls to Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Mr. Nihal Talduwa’s phone to inquire about this, but he did not respond to it. However, space has been reserved here to respond to this letter directed against him and this letter has been addressed to His Excellency President Ranil Wickramasinghe and a group.
The article is below –
It is related to taking the Police Media Division to a new building by misusing public funds.
The Police Media Division of the Sri Lanka Police has been established in Colombo 01, Police Headquarters since 2014 and was separated from the Police Public Relations Division in 2014 and established on the basis of the needs of the service.
Based on the concept of the current director of this division, Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Mr. Nihal Talduwa and stating that there is no space in this division, a request has been made to the relevant departments to take this division to the 14th floor of the Setshiripaya Building located in Battaramulla and in response to this, the Minister of Public Security According to the instructions of Mr. Tiran Alas, the above-mentioned Battaramulla is to be taken to the 14th floor of the Setsiripaya building on a monthly rental basis of 14 lakh rupees.
No payment is made to this division, land or building which is currently established in the police headquarters area and no problem has arisen so far for the officers coming to work in this division for transportation facilities for welfare work and other needs. As mentioned above, if this division is moved to the Battaramulla Setshiripaya building, the government will have to pay an amount of 14 lakh rupees monthly for this, and the employees will not be able to report their duties on time.
The Director of Media Division without any compelling reason contrary to the National Budget Circular No. 03/2022 dated 26-04-2022 referred to by the Treasury Secretary that it has been decided to suspend the hiring of new buildings for government offices or the entering into of new lease or lease agreements until further notice. And due to the arbitrary decisions of the minister in charge of the subject, you are informed about this unseemly practice of moving a government institution or department to another building by misusing government funds and it has been learned from unofficial sources that the existing building is going to be demolished and a tourist hotel will be built in that place.
It is reported that the Inspector General of Police CD Wickramaratne has stated that there is no financial provision to carry this division and however this process is going on according to the orders of the Police Media Spokesman and the Minister of Public Security and as the initial step, one division from that division will be transferred on 16.09.2022. Days have been carried away. According to the information we have received, only one section has been taken away, indicating that the media section of the Setshiripaya building has been established in an attempt to get a head start on getting money.
About 80 officers of the Police Media Division are currently performing their duties and even the majority of those officers are protesting this process due to various problems such as transportation problems.
This type of arbitrary and misuse of public funds and even violating the orders of the Honorable President without any necessary reason to inform those responsible for the taking over of new buildings through the media to inform about this illegal act and if the repair of this building is carried out with the coolie money spent on the Setsiripaya building on a monthly basis, it will continue for a long time. I am sending this to you for your awareness and for the knowledge of those responsible regarding this fraudulent act that many officers are of the opinion that it will be possible to degrade the building and get great service even in the duties of the officers.
(See Rent of Buildings at Page No. 410 of the Financial Regulations Act 1992)
Copies – President Ranil Wickramasinghe, Defense Secretary Kamal Gunaratne, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.
However, we do not approve of wasting money like this when the people are facing a thousand problems of hunger and by now even the police officers are not able to live on their salary. Such destructions should not be done in such Sri Lanka. However, when looking at the corruption and fraud of the rulers, the same system is followed by the executive class belonging to the public administration service and even the officers of the police media division are strongly opposed to the destruction of 14 lakhs monthly when their salary is not enough to live. It is said that the monthly expenses for the police department’s rental buildings are millions.
