Colombo Municipal Council DOES NOT have to depend on the Central Government for funds

The appalling state of the mismanagement of Colombo in the last 4 years by the Government lead administration seems to be completely been ignored by the opposition UNP in their campaign, either out of inability to articulate or due to oversight. The cosmetic changes brought about by Ghotabaya driving around Colombo at night with Architect Murad Ismail, deciding to knock this wall and that seems by and large to have endeared GR to the Colombo 7 leisured classes who see their areas being uplifted, partly because some of the area forms part of GR's evening walk which he wants to preserve for posterity.

The reality is somewhat different. If you take the billboards as just one example, the rates payable to the CMC (Colombo Municipal Council) is dependent upon the size of the bill boards. Government affiliated advertising agencies such as TRIAD who put up the bill boards are in cahoots with dare I say international accounting firms to fudge the ad size (Auditing firms are supposed to independently verify the size of the billboards in submission to the CMC for the calculation of the rates payable to the CMC) to a fraction of the real size and therefore defraud the CMC of the much needed revenue.


If you give me the task of Auditing the Auditors, I will show you that the CMC is being defrauded by the AD agencies to the tune of Rs500M per annum, not a small size, I think this money goes into the pockets of the AD agency as they charge this from their customers, thereby defrauding the customers also. So this fleecing is taking place under the noses of the CMC and with knowledge of the Government as they know they are protected from prosecution due to the grace and favor they enjoy with the corrupt administration of UPFA lead people.

Using the same logic there are many businesses that are not paying the required rates, and I assume a further Rs 3Billion per annum can be raised from the proper collection of amounts due to the CMC.

So give me the task of collecting the money and I will make sure everything can be financed by the CMC