The Special Presidential Commission investigating coal procurement has asked the President to extend its term by a further two months, with its current mandate due to expire on 16 October — six days from the request, NewsFirst reported on Saturday.

The commission’s Secretary, D. V. Bandulasena, confirmed both the request and the expiry date.

Where the inquiry stands

The commission has recorded evidence from more than 70 individuals in connection with the transactions under investigation, and expects the evidence-recording stage to conclude next week.

It has also issued notices to 18 individuals, asking them to set out their position on irregularities it has identified in coal imports and procurement. Those served are required to submit representations within two weeks of receiving them.

That sequence explains the extension request. If evidence-gathering finishes next week and the 18 have two weeks from service to reply, the replies cannot all be in hand before the 16 October expiry — leaving the commission unable to consider them, let alone report, inside its existing term.

This answers a question left open on 30 September

When the notices to the 18 were first reported, this newsroom noted that the single filing available did not say whether the commission would seek an extension of its term. Saturday’s report answers that directly: it has.

A discrepancy on the notices

NewsFirst places the issuing of the 18 notices “last week” and gives the response window as two weeks from receipt. Our earlier reporting, sourced to Hiru News, dated the notices to the end of September — the 18 appeared before the commission on Tuesday 29 September, after which the notices were served — and gave a fixed deadline of 9 October, not a rolling two-week window.

Both the date of service and the nature of the deadline therefore differ between the two accounts. A 9 October deadline has already passed; a two-week window from service in the first week of October has not. The two readings cannot both be correct, and neither outlet addresses the other’s version.

Background

The commission was formally gazetted on 17 April under the Special Presidential Commissions of Inquiry Act No. 7 of 1978, appointed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and headed by Supreme Court Justice Gihan Kulatunga. Its mandate covers the entire period from the inception of coal-based power generation in Sri Lanka up to 16 April 2026, centring on transactions involving the state-owned Lanka Coal (Private) Limited, and includes identifying the political authorities, officials and suppliers responsible for any wrongdoing.

Its 16 October end date falls almost exactly six months after the gazette. A two-month extension would carry it to roughly mid-December.

Those issued notices in September included former Power and Energy Minister Engineer Kumara Jayakody. Separately, Energy Minister Anura Karunathilake told Parliament on 8 October that inferior-quality coal imports had cost the country Rs. 15.765 billion, with Rs. 16.989 billion in penalties and performance bonds withheld from suppliers.

Not reported

NewsFirst does not say when the request was submitted, whether the President has responded, or what happens to the inquiry’s work if the extension is refused and the term lapses on 16 October with replies outstanding.

It does not name the more than 70 witnesses or say who they were, give the specific irregularities the notices set out, or name any of the 18 beyond what earlier reporting established. It does not say whether the commission has reached any preliminary findings, when it expects to report, or whether an extension would be its first.

This article is single-sourced. No other verified newsroom had filed on the extension request at the time of writing; Ada Derana, which covers the commission frequently, remains unreachable from our infrastructure.