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| Wednesday, 24 March 2004 |
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by Nadira Gunatilleke People's Action For Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) Chairman Kingsley Rodrigo yesterday denied all the allegations made by politicians about the large amount of foreign funds received by the PAFFREL and its transparency. Addressing a press briefing held at the Trans Asia Hotel, Colombo in connection with releasing the second situation report on Parliamentary General Elections, April 2004 yesterday, Mr. Rodrigo said that the PAFFREL has already received Rs. 13.5 million from the Japanese Embassy (Rs. 3,006,670 million), Norwegian Embassy (Rs. 6,137,020), British Embassy (Rs. 800,000) and Canadian International Development Agency (Rs. 3,500,000 from CIDA). The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) has pledged to grant Rs.19,400,000 but agreements have still not been signed. "We need Rs.30 million to cover all the expenses. We will mobilize 2000 monitors with 500 vehicles for this years election, he added. This is the nineteenth election that will be monitored by the PAFFREL and we have been monitoring elections since 1982. We received foreign funds after the Wayamba Provincial Council Election held in 1999 which proved that more and more monitoring is needed to hold free and fair elections. 'After every election we submit a detailed report on our accounts which is published and attached by our report. Our audit reports are freely available to anyone who wishes to inquire about our accounts. We have already submitted a report on our accounts on the Parliamentary General Election 2004 to the Elections Commissioner and anyone who wishes to get information can get a copy from him,' he asserted.. No political party has submitted a report on their expenditure on election campaigns and no one has ever talked about this. Where is the transparency of such reports?, he questioned. |
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