The Cabinet has approved a contract to supply 1,100,000 bags of medicated solution used to treat kidney patients undergoing dialysis, on a proposal by the Minister of Health and Mass Media.
The two verified newsrooms that reported the decision agree on everything except the price — and the gap between their figures is close to ninefold.
What both filings agree on
The solution is used to remove waste products and excess fluid from the bodies of patients suffering acute or chronic kidney failure.
Bids were invited under the International Competitive Procurement Procedure, and two bids were received. After evaluation, the High-Level Procurement Committee recommended the award, and the Cabinet approved it on that recommendation.
The contract goes to the lowest responsive bidder, a Sri Lankan company, with the medicines manufactured by Peritone Health Sdn Bhd of Malaysia.
The price is reported two ways
The Daily Mirror reported the contract value as Rs 111,119,990 — about Rs 111.1 million — giving the figure to the rupee, in the form a Cabinet decision document would carry.
Hiru News reported it as Rs 990 million, stated plainly in Sinhala as රුපියල් මිලියන 990.
The two cannot both be right, and the difference is not a rounding. Per bag, the Daily Mirror’s figure works out at about Rs 101; Hiru’s at Rs 900.
One detail is worth recording without being treated as proof. The Daily Mirror’s exact figure, 111,119,990, ends in the same three digits Hiru states as its millions value. That is the pattern a transcription slip would leave, and this desk’s archive records repeated figure distortions in Hiru filings — including a lost decimal place and a crore-to-million conversion error. But the coincidence is not evidence, and Hiru’s Sinhala phrasing is clean and unambiguous rather than garbled.
This desk asserts neither figure. The Daily Mirror’s is the more precise and is attributed above; Hiru’s divergence is recorded here rather than dropped. The underlying Cabinet decision would settle it, and neither filing links to it.
The contractor’s name is also reported two ways
The Daily Mirror names the supplier Infuxion Lanka (Private) Limited, using that spelling twice. Hiru names it Influxion Lanka (Private) Limited. Both agree on the Malaysian manufacturer. This desk has not been able to confirm which spelling is correct and has avoided asserting either in the text above.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the contract period, or says how long 1.1 million bags are expected to last — which is what would show whether this is a routine annual resupply or an expansion of provision.
Neither identifies the unsuccessful bidder, gives the value of the losing bid, or says how many patients the supply is intended to cover. Neither states which hospitals or units will receive it, and neither quotes the Health Minister or a Cabinet spokesman on the item.
Corroborated. Both verified newsrooms filed independently on Tuesday afternoon, about 15 minutes apart, and agree on the quantity, the procurement route, the number of bids, the recommending committee, the manufacturer and the proposing minister.