Kumar Rupesinghe paid Rs.
1.1 mn. a month, Select Committee told
By Wijitha Nakkawita
The Island
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Non Governmental Organizations
have found that head of the Foundation for Co-existence an NGO Kumar
was drawing an annual salary of 1.1 million rupee monthly salary from
a budget of approximately 60 million rupees Chairman of the Parliamentary
Select Committee Wijitha Herath told Sunday Island yesterday (21).
He said Kumar Rupasinghe was questioned by the Select Committee on
two occasions recently for nearly four and half hours and Rupasinghe
said the NGO was financed by the Foreign Ministry of Norway, Bergoff
Foundation, ZOA and other foreign bodies and its annual budget was financed
from foreign sources.
The NGO also had a retired DIG as a security consultant on its payroll
with a monthly salary of 34,000 rupees and an official vehicle given
to him, but there were others in the NGO payroll paid monthly salaries
ranging from 260,000 to 50,000 rupees. When asked why it was considered
necessary to employ a retired DIG Rupasinghe had said there were death
threats against him and it was decided to employ the retired DIG.
The NGO had formulated a project to settle civil land disputes in the
Eastern Province as the NGO believed that the "ethnic conflict
was based on disparities in land ownership of the province, and the
NGO had considered it necessary to intervene to resolve the problem,"
but when the Select Committee queried from Rupasinghe about the project
he had admitted that the NGO conducted a survey of land ownership of
the Tamil and Muslim residents of the province but the survey did not
focus on the land ownership of the Sinhalese residents of the province.
When the committee asked why the Sinhalese people's land ownership
was not surveyed Rupasinghe had said it will be done later.
The Foundation for Co-Existence has on its board of directors former
civil servant Bradman Weerakoon, Kumar Rupasinghe Desmond Fernando,
Jayadeva Uyangoda among others.
The organisation was said to be working in the Batticaloa, Ampara,
Puttalam and Mannar Disticts with the funds it received from foreign
governments and non-government sources, Herath said.
The Parliamentary Select Committee on NGOs comprises 24 members of
parliament including Chief Government Whip Jeyraj Fernandopulle, Dinesh
Gunawardena, John Amaratunga and Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael
Perera.
When Rupasinghe was questioned by the committee on his role in International
Alert which was alleged to have supported the rebel group FUR in Searra
Leone he had admitted that the elected President of the country had
written to the UN Secretary General complaining that International Alert
had supported the FUR rebel group to overthrow his elected government
and that Rupasinghe's successor at the International Alert had written
to the UN Secretary General apologizing for the role IA played in the
affair, Herath also said.
Herath also said Rupasinghe admitted before the committee that the
NGO should change its programme of work and gave an assurance to the
committee that its activities will be made more transparent and useful.
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