MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage says that twelve members of the Parliament Committee on Public Finance (COPF) have stated that they do not accept the report presented to Parliament by the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Harsha de Silva, regarding the online visa issuance for tourists.
The group of MPs, including Shehan Semasinghe, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Vajira Abeywardena, Suren Raghavan, Duminda Dissanayake, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Sita Arambepola, Anupa Pasqual, Johnston Fernando, and Madhura Withanage, disagrees with the findings of the report, according to Aluthgamage.
He further stated that since the statistics received by the committee regarding tourist arrivals are contradictory, the group of MPs had requested the Chairman to delay presenting the report to Parliament. However, Dr. Harsha de Silva ignored this objection and presented the report to Parliament, Aluthgamage said.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday (12), Harsha de Silva said the COPF report has found that VFS Global had been picked without calling for official bids and had resulted in the Department of Immigration and Emigration losing out on receiving competitive rates for visa issuance. (NewsWire)