A sub-committee of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) was told on Thursday that Avant Garde had been receiving about US$320,000 a month for several years from Sri Lanka’s floating armoury operation — revenue that committee members said would otherwise have been due to the State.
The figures emerged when officials of the state-owned Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited (RALL) were summoned to explain the company’s operations and its long-standing joint venture with the private firm.
RALL Chairman Retired Brigadier Jude Fernando told the committee the current management had not initiated the arrangement, and that a joint venture agreement signed by previous officials remained in force. He said weapons carried by ships passing through Sri Lankan waters are offloaded at the Port of Galle and held in floating armouries, because international rules bar such weapons from being brought ashore. Storing three weapons costs about US$1,800, with a further US$1,800 charged on retrieval.
The operation currently generates roughly US$400,000 a month, Fernando said, with 80 percent of profits going to the private company and the remaining 20 percent split between the Sri Lanka Navy and Rakna Lanka. Asked by sub-committee chairman Asitha Niroshan whether the agreement could be ended, he said legal constraints applied because it runs until 2027.
Pressed by MP Prageeth Maduranga on who authorised the arrangement, RALL Head of Legal Himasha Munasinghe said there was no evidence the arrangements begun in 2009 had received Cabinet approval, adding the matter fell under the Ministry of Defence rather than being solely a board decision.
Officials also told the committee that records account for 219 weapons belonging to the company, that 139 remain in overseas armouries and have not been repatriated, and that the whereabouts of 13 are unknown. The locations cited — Oman, South Africa, Tanzania, the Red Sea region, Mauritius, Poland and France — accounted for 125 firearms. No party has yet accepted responsibility for bringing them back.
Avant Garde owes Rakna Lanka about Rs. 3.5 million, Chief Maritime Security Officer Retired Commodore D.L.S.M. Dias said, with contractual payments routinely two to three months late.
