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The Commission on Public Enterprises (COPE) has revealed that a six-acre land of the Urban Development Authority located at James Peiris Mawatha in Colombo 02 was leased out for 99 years at Rs1,200 crore in 2019 without the approval of the board.
While drafting the lease agreement relating to the land, it was revealed that in addition to the lease conditions submitted and approved by the Board, other conditions were added which were not approved by the Board.
However, COPE revealed that the development of the land has now come to a standstill as a disciplinary investigation is underway into the legal director’s role in drafting the agreement in question.
The COPE committee chaired by MP Rohitha Abeygunawardana disclosed details about the matter during its recent (July 9) meeting in Parliament.
It was also revealed that the Urban Development Authority had leased out 2 acres of 2 rud 21.4 acres of land adjacent to Fort DR Wijewardana Mawatha without the formal approval of the board, resulting in a loss of Rs330 million to the Urban Development Authority. The Chairman, therefore, directed the officials to submit a formal report on these events to the committee within two weeks. While presenting the facts, the officials of the National Audit Office pointed out that they had found problems with the accounting system of the Urban Development Authority. The officials pointed out that the way the value of the project land owned by the authority was assessed was also questionable. The officials of the Audit Office pointed out that the ownership of the land on which the Parliament House was located still belonged to the Urban Development Authority and directed that the ownership of the land be transferred to the Parliament. The Chairman of the Committee, while addressing the committee, directed the committee to submit a complete report to the committee within two weeks containing all the details of all the investment land owned by the Urban Development Authority.
The Urban Development Authority used Rs48.156 billion of government funds under the Urban Revitalization Program to build 22 housing projects totaling 13,602 houses for slum dwellers living around Colombo. However, officials from the Audit Bureau pointed out that 66 houses in such apartment buildings are still vacant. Officials from the Urban Development Authority said that measures will be taken to resettle owners of vacant houses as soon as possible. However, officials from the Audit Bureau pointed out that among the completed housing projects, only one housing project has obtained an apartment management certificate. It was revealed that the Urban Development Authority has borne Rs667.6 million in housing maintenance costs from 2023 to May 2024. Therefore, officials pointed out that the responsibility for housing maintenance will be released from the Urban Development Authority after the transfer of housing ownership to the relevant persons.
Furthermore, the committee also noted that the government has not paid enough attention to providing parking facilities for the people who come to Colombo every day.
The committee noted that work on two parking lots proposed by the authorities themselves was stopped in mid-2021 and Rs 230 million has been spent so far.
The city development officer therefore informed the committee that construction work has been started and completed so that the two parking lots can be used in their current state.
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