UDA land in Colombo leased for 99 yrs. without Directors’ approval!
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) disclosed that a 6-acre land belonging to the Urban Development Authority located at James Peiris Mawatha, Colombo 02 was leased for 12 billion rupees for 99 years in 2019 without the approval of the Board of Directors.
When drafting the lease agreement related to this land, it was disclosed that in addition to the lease conditions submitted and approved by the Board of Directors, other conditions were included that were not approved by the Board of Directors.
However, it was disclosed at the COPE that disciplinary investigations are underway against the Legal Director regarding the drafting of the relevant agreements and the development of the particular land has been at a halt thus far.
Details pertaining to the said matter was disclosed when the COPE met in Parliament recently (July 09) under the Chairmanship of MP Rohitha Abeygunawardana.
Furthermore, it was also disclosed that the Authority had to bear a loss of 330 million rupees due to the leasing of 2 acres 2 roods and 21.4 perches land bordering Fort D. R. Wijewardana Mawatha owned by the Urban Development Authority without the formal approval of the Board of Directors. Accordingly, the Chair instructed the officials to send a formal report on these incidents to the Committee within two weeks.Presenting facts, the officials of the National Audit Department pointed out that they have identified the problematic situations in the accounting system of the Urban Development Authority. The officials pointed out that the manner in which the values of the project lands owned by the Authority have been assessed is also questionable. The officials of the audit department pointed out that the ownership of the land on which the Parliament complex stand is still held by the Urban Development Authority and gave instructions to transfer ownership of the land to the Parliament. Addressing the Committee, the Chair of the Committee instructed to send a complete report containing all the details of all the investment lands owned by the Urban Development Authority to the Committee within two weeks.
The Urban Development Authority has completed 13,602 houses in 22 housing projects using 48,156 million government funds under the Urban Revitalization Program for ghetto dwellers living around Colombo. However, the officials of the audit office pointed out that 66 houses in such apartment complexes still remain vacant. Officials of the Urban Development Authority stated that measures will be taken to settle the owners of the vacant houses as soon as possible. However, the officials of the audit office pointed out that the condominium management certificate has been obtained for only one housing project out of the completed housing projects. As a result, it was disclosed that the Urban Development Authority has borne a sum of 667.6 million rupees for the maintenance of houses in 2023 and up until May 2024. Accordingly, the officials pointed out that after transferring the ownership of the houses to the relevant personnel, the responsibility of maintaining the houses will be removed from the Urban Development Authority.
Furthermore, the attention of the Committee was also drawn to the fact that not enough attention has been paid to provide facilities for parking the vehicles of the people who come to Colombo on a daily basis.
The Committee pointed out that the work of the 2 parking garages proposed to be built by the authority itself was stopped in the middle of the year 2021 and so far, 230 million rupees have been spent.
Accordingly, the Urban Development Officers informed the committee that the construction work has started to complete the work in such a way that these 2 car parks can be used in their current condition.