Wonder of Asia - Water, Corruption and Maladies! (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

A Japanese water purification company was about to receive by far the heftiest donation of a few million dollars from the Sri Lankan Government to start their business in the country in order to clean ground-water resources, which would in turn help to get rid of toxic chemicals and agro-chemicals from ground-water to reduce the disease burden of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) in affected areas.

The Japanese company was introduced to “Pelpola Vipassi Foundation” which was inaugurated by ven. Pelpola Vipassi thero and then the Foundation introduced them to the Sri Lankan Government via several Ministers.

A Japanese official of the company who is a good friend of mine got a job to investigate about this suspicious invitation to get involved in an internal health issue which was very unlikely to be a project designed in good faith. Fortunately my friend felt something-fishy as it contradicted the usual diplomatic relationship of two countries and asked me about the credibility of the foundation and this particular chief Buddhist monk. (This happened in 2013)

Palpola Vipassi Foundation is situated near the Royal Colombo Golf Club. The founder Ven Pelpola Vipassi Thero is very fluent in Japanese. So far in the history he had international relations mainly with Japan and had not dealt with any other country.

 

As per the information I obtained from my info-sources, the chief monk has swindled millions of money from Japan. There had been court cases and police inquiries which were filed even by Japanese people, against him. The police officer, DIG [Name omitted] who was in-charge of his inquiries is now living in Australia.

Pelpola Thero had pilfered many case-files against him from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption through the brother of [Name omitted] (Sri Lankan ambassador of Sri Lanka Embassy in Germany) who was his partner Thero of the Foundation. 

He was an intimate UNP fan during the time of President J R Jayawardana and he was on the border of being jailed due to monetary issues towards the end of his tenure of office. During the latter part of the presidency Thero was not in good terms with the President JR as well.

Everyone advised me to not to reach anyone through the Foundation as they may cut a share in every deal. As far as I know the Foundation earned a lot of money by working hand in hand with Jeyaraj Fernandopulle Foundation, though a temple in Negombo which was constructed by Japanese donations. A friend of mine who is a journalist and a market analyst of the CSE also endorsed it.

“Facts are sacred and the comment is free” which indeed is the favorite slogan of my investment guru. Likewise these "negative" facts are not available anywhere on the internet!

At the moment the deals that take place in the country are extremely suspicious and controversial, mostly the two major determinants of massive projects which are prioritization and decency are nowhere in all senses of the word!

The best example is the top four construction companies of the country. Sanken, Access, Maga and Nawaloka; all of them bribe colossal amounts of money to government officials and any other authority. Even the road construction companies like NEM are famous for their operations with the Ministry of Economic Development and making underhand money!

On the contrary, all our leading construction/engineering companies including “Tudawe Brothers” are capable of carrying out this very water purification project. If by any chance they don’t have expertise and capacities, the next best option is getting in touch with Japanese or any other Voluntary Organizations in defiance of pumping millions of dollars into unrefined projects while entrapping billions in the quicksands of our politicos, halfway through.