(COLOMBO) – Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardane on Tuesday refuted allegations that his office was involved in any way in an alleged job racket to Denmark.
The Prime Minister was responding to a question raised by main Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa in Parliament that an alleged racket is being operated by collecting Rs. 600,000 each from youths promising them lucrative employment in Denmark by a certain individual calling himself a coordinating secretary to the Prime Minister.
The Opposition Leader urged the Prime Minister to conduct an investigation into these allegations.
The Prime Minister said, he or his institutions had no involvement into such practice and said the Criminal Investigation Department CID has been called in to investigate.
Meanwhile recent media reports have suggested that a job agreement between Sri Lanka and Israel has hit a snag for the lack of transparency in the recruiting process among other alleged irregularities such as charging job aspirants huge fees outside the officially stipulated figure.
According to the reports so-called middlemen packing political patronage are believed to be involved in the alleged racket.
Israel has at the same time called on the authorities in Colombo to hasten the recruiting process or face the risk of losing the package altogether.
Israel has also warned against the involvement of middlemen in the recruiting process.
Tel Aviv has placed an order for some 10,000 Sri Lankans to be employed as farm hands in the Jewish State under a Government-to-Government deal.
The Jewish State has also indicated that it could double the figure in the coming months depending however on performances.
At present there are an estimated 8,000 Sri Lankans mainly females working as caregivers in that country.
