Coastal Conservation Bosses Eat Tax Money... Ministers Are Sleeping...
The Director General of the Department of Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management, Professor Turni Pradeep Kumara. That choice is the National People's Power Government.
Turni Pradeep Kumara turned a blind eye to the corruption in this department, which has been known as an extremely corrupt institution, for the past year, when evidence was continuously exposed. Moreover, he was not on the side of the officials working against corruption, but on the side of the corrupt. Even though the allegations of corruption were proven in front of his eyes, he continued to protect the corrupt.
The extent of the waste of the Turnis who woke up from their sleep...
A miracle has happened now. Turni Pradeep Kumara has suddenly woken up from his sleep. Now the man is on fire. Some television channels showed the Minister of Environment running around looking for unauthorized constructions on the beach.
Those who are not familiar with what he and Minister Dabalage have done in the past year are shocked by the eagerness of these people to remove unauthorized constructions. However, the extent of that interest will soon be visible to everyone.
The Director General, who is now struggling with the flames, has not only approved unauthorized constructions, but has also blatantly exploited and wasted hundreds of thousands of rupees of public money.
Below is an example of a case where hundreds of thousands of rupees of public money were exploited and wasted twice for the same purpose.
The Department of Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management had allocated funds to purchase Arc GIS software in 2025. The decision to use the money for another purpose at the sole discretion of Director General Terni Pradeep Kumara led to a major fraud in the Coastal Conservation Department.
Despite the recommendation of the Technical Evaluation Committee and the recommendation of the Procurement Committee to purchase Arc GIS software, Terni Pradeep Kumara fraudulently awarded a tender to CANASIA Geo Solutions for Rs. 5 million.
The beginning of the drone survey scandal...
The Director General of the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Department, Terni Pradeep Kumara, published a newspaper advertisement on November 26, 2025. It stated that prices were being invited for obtaining a drone survey service for Rs. 5 million for coastal conservation and that sealed bids were being invited from interested bidders.
According to the relevant notice, bidders are required to submit prices per hectare for LiDAR survey and high-resolution orthomosaic. (LiDAR survey is a state-of-the-art surveying technology that uses laser beams to measure land and objects in 3D.)
Also, bidders must have more than 3 years of experience in drone surveys and must have completed at least 3,000 hectares of coastal projects in Sri Lanka, the relevant notice stated.
What happened to the bidders in secret....
According to the published advertisement, the last date for receipt of bids was 2025.12.15. Accordingly, 8 bidders had submitted their bids for this project. The 8 bidders are CANASIA Geo Solution, SULECO Pvt Ltd, EDPMC (Pvt) Ltd - Engineering Design and project Management Company, CESL ( Central Engineering Consultancy ) Government, Wegro (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo Institute of Engineering service, Global GIS Pv Ltd and Geo Plus Solutions.
The bid opening was held on 2025/12/15. Normally, after the bid opening, the bid evaluation committee should evaluate the relevant bids and submit its report to the procurement committee. The procurement committee will give their committee decision only after that.
Finally, this tender of 5 million was awarded to a company called CANASIA Geo Solution.
An extremely corrupt choice....
In the awarding of this tender, the company called CANASIA Geo Solution was also selected in a very corrupt manner. The amount of area to be photographed for this project was not specified in the bid document. Usually, the amount of hectares to be photographed is stated and the price per hectare is called for. However, what has been done here is the amount of hectares that can be done within 5 million and the price per hectare is called.
According to the prices submitted by the bidders for this tender, the total bid value they submitted is divided by the amount of hectares they submitted, and the cost per hectare is shown as follows. (The cost of the four lowest bidders is mentioned here.)
The total cost submitted by EDPMC (Pvt) Ltd is 5,000,000 and the area is 5250 hectares, and accordingly the average cost per hectare is Rs. 952.38.
Similarly, the total cost submitted by GLOBAL GIS (Pvt) Ltd is 4,995,000 and the area is 3400 hectares. Accordingly the average cost per hectare is Rs. 1469.12.
The total cost submitted by CANASIA GEO SOLUTIONS is 5,000,000 and the area is 3018 hectares, and accordingly the average cost per hectare is Rs. 1656.73.
However, the Bid Evaluation Committee and the Procurement Committee selected CANASIA GEO SOLUTIONS, which had submitted the fourth highest bid, to award the contract. That is, the average cost per hectare is Rs. 1656.73 for surveying 3018 hectares. The total cost is Rs. 5,000,000.
The government has lost money and is pocketing that money.....
According to EDPMC(Pvt) Ltd, which has submitted the lowest price per hectare, the cost for 3018 hectares is 952.38 × 3018 = 2,874,282.00. Accordingly, the loss incurred by the government by not awarding the contract to the company that submitted the lowest bid is 5,000,000 - 2,874,282.00 = Rs. 2,125,718.
Also, according to SULECO(Pvt) Ltd, which has submitted the second lowest bid per hectare, the cost for 3018 hectares is 1079.55 × 3018 = 3,258,082.00. Accordingly, the loss incurred by the government by not awarding the contract to the company that has submitted the second lowest bid is 5,000,000- 3,258,082 = 1,741,918.
Two of the leading companies in Sri Lanka with the highest experience and qualifications in implementing such projects are SULECO(Pvt) Ltd, EDPMC(Pvt) Ltd and GLOBAL GIS (Pvt) Ltd.
The money related to this loss suffered by the government went into someone's pocket. Did that money go into the pocket of Lanka Ramanayake, the extremely corrupt Additional Director General who was the Chairman of the Bid Evaluation Committee for this tender? Or did it go into the pocket of Director General Turney Pradeep Kumara who was the Chairman of the Procurement Committee? Or did it go to some other party? We do not know for sure.
Violation of Procurement Guidelines..
Usually, after a bidder is selected, there are several other activities that need to be done before entering into an agreement with him. The award of the project to the bidder takes place after the completion of that process.
The relevant activity is, as per Section 8.2 of the Procurement Guidelines, to notify all bidders in writing of the decision of the Procurement Committee within one week. This is mandatory for a national competitive bidding. However, these corrupt individuals blatantly violated these guidelines and did not inform any of the other bidders of the relevant decision.
As per Section 8.3 of the Procurement Guidelines, the other bidders have the opportunity to inquire about the reason why they were not selected, and when such an inquiry is made, the entity that carried out the procurement must provide answers. Also, as per Chapter 8.5 of the Procurement Guidelines, the relevant bidders should be given the opportunity to file appeals.
Also, as per Chapter 8.4 of the Procurement Guidelines, time should be given for the above steps and then the bid should be awarded. But these corrupt people have not followed all the chapters 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 of the Procurement Guidelines. This is a big mistake. Moreover, even basic human rights have been violated by this.
It is very clear that they have acted in this way to prevent the fraud they have committed from being exposed. Director General Turney Pradeep Kumara, who acted as the Chairman of the Procurement Committee, was the mastermind behind this fraud.
The loss suffered by the government by directly violating Chapters 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5 (Provision of Appeal Period and Notification of Decisions) of the Public Procurement Guidelines during the National Competitive Bidding, by awarding the tender to the company that beat the lowest bid and submitted the fourth highest price, is serious.
Amazing acts against corruption.....
The officers and bidders of this institution have been so diligent as to complete all procurement activities within 15 days from 15/12/2025, take drone photographs related to 50 lakhs, map them as required, and certify and submit the relevant bills for the same.
It is truly problematic how this project was completed in just seven days, despite the bidding documents stating that the project should be completed within 120 days after the tender was awarded.
Where the law went wild.....
However, legal action should have been taken against all the members of the bid evaluation committee involved in this corrupt act, all the members of the procurement committee and all the officers who approved the payments.
Although I exposed this on social media with all the information about this, neither the two ministers in charge of this department nor the secretary of the ministry took legal action against this corrupt act, nor did they even investigate it.
How public money was squandered......
So far, the Department of Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management has failed to obtain any useful results from the Arc GIS software purchased through the relevant tender.
Due to this tender, which was given corruptly with the aim of obtaining a large commission, the relevant institution CANASIA Geo Solutions has not yet performed any useful work for the Department of Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management.
Also, due to the unavailability of the Arc GIS software that had been available for the department for a long time, the design work in the institution has been dormant for a long time. Although attempts were made to suppress the corrupt act by giving a lot of media publicity, all the actions taken so far have been proven in vain before everyone.
Also, in order to suppress this corrupt act that we had exposed earlier, Turney Pradeep Kumara and the then highly corrupt Assistant Director General, Lanka Ramanayake, started giving bribes to other officers in the institution in an informal manner.
Suppressing corruption by entertaining officials..
From February 16 to 21, 2026, Director General Turni Pradeep Kumara and the then Additional Director General Lanka Ramanayake took steps to bribe nearly 48 officials under the guise of providing training on GIS.
This process of giving bribes in an informal manner was exposed when CANASIA Geo Solutions organized a workshop under the guise of providing training on this software. However, a video of the officers participating in it, dressed up in a very smart manner, singing and dancing, went viral on social media. (It is attached at the end of this post.)
The most important thing is that nearly Rs. 40, 000 of government money was spent on each officer who participated in this training. Accordingly, the total amount spent by the 48 officers who participated in it is approximately 2 million.
These are the public's tax money. The public's tax money cannot be spent or wasted by individuals as they wish. Also, what was the result of this training for the department in the end? Can Turney Pradeep Kumara explain or justify it? No. It has not been possible yet. Minister Dabala or the Ministry Secretary has not yet investigated these.
GIS training is training on a subject that goes with high-tech knowledge. Also, the people who receive this training should be able to use the knowledge gained after this training.
But among the people who participated in this training, there were only 4 engineers and one technical officer. Accordingly, there were only 6 officers who could actually use this knowledge practically and had the facilities for it. All the others are not in a position to use this knowledge practically or have the facilities for it.
For example, a large number of Coast Guard officers participated in this training. Coast Guard officers are field officers responsible for preventing and enforcing legal actions against unauthorized construction in coastal areas. They do not have the time or high-speed computer facilities to apply the knowledge gained through such training.
Who gave Turney the authority to waste public money?...
So how did Turney Pradeep Kumara gain the ability to waste public money in this way? Don’t the Minister of Environment, Deputy Minister and the Secretary of the Ministry have the responsibility to monitor them?
Isn’t it wrong when these corrupt people waste the tax money that innocent people pay when they buy their daily food and drink? Or is the waste committed by the bosses appointed to the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Department not a problem for these rulers?
So far, the officers who participated in the training have not taken any effective action through the training, and about 2 million public money has been wasted in this way.
Meanwhile, according to sources we are receiving, the Jaffna Regional Office, Batticaloa Regional Office and Hambantota Regional Office of the Coastal Resources Development and Coastal Resources Management Department do not have permanent office buildings.
Also, the Jaffna Regional Engineer does not even have the necessary vehicle facilities to carry out field work. Also, there are not enough computers and printers to perform a large number of duties in the regional offices. There are no photocopy machines. Shouldn't the relevant authorities pay attention to the fact that the public's tax money is being used for so-called training with such large shortcomings?
Without even the necessary infrastructure facilities like computers and vehicles in the regional offices, it is absolutely not justified to spend lakhs of public tax money on wasteful "training" that has no practical effectiveness.
There are no investigations into the officials who misused their powers....
In this regard, there is full scope to obtain TEC reports and procurement reports through RTI (Right to Information Act) and complain to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption under the Anti-Corruption Act No. 9 of 2023. It is a serious offense under the new act for public officials to misuse their powers and cause losses to the government.
On the other hand, the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Department has not even provided the minimum facilities required to use the knowledge acquired by these officials. Therefore, it is clear that the knowledge acquired through this training will be wasted like a river.
Due to the appointment of a person with no administrative or technical knowledge as the Director General of a department that performs one of the most important functions of the country, based solely on friendship, not only is that institution collapsing on a large scale, but it is also wasting the tax money of innocent people.
The most tragic incident here is that the very head appointed to eliminate corruption and fraud is joining hands with the corrupt and engaging in corruption.
Jayalathge Sunil Gamini ✍️
