Media report baseless and false - Minister Premajayantha

Suraj A Bandara

Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha yesterday said the media report that seven employees of the Petroleum Corporation's commercial section have been transferred was baseless and no transfers have yet been made after the incident of alleged distribution of 20,000 tonnes of petrol.

The Minister said that employees had given false information alleging malpractices taking place in the Petroleum Corporation to the media.

A fabricated news item had been published after the incident that all employees had been transfered with immediate effect.

Responding to the news item, Minister Premajayantha said that no action had so far been taken against any employee and the news item was untrue.

He said if any person was found guilty of distributing or working against the proper procedure of importing petrol, he would be penalized after a transparent inquiry. If any malpractices had been carried out, disciplinary action would be taken for those involved in the fraud, he added.

Up to now laboratory tests have proved that the imported petrol was in good condition and up to standard, he said.