Of modern kings & henchmen (or peons?)
A large amount of data regarding the council of advisers to the President was revealed when the Leader of the House Minister Dinesh Gunawardene responded to a question posed in Parliament by JVP MP Anura Dissanayaka. Mr. Dissanayaka had asked the question on three occasions and the Speaker too had found fault with the ruling party for not responding to the question.
The approved number of advisers for the President is 25 and already 23 have been appointed. Each adviser is paid Rs.30,000 a month, a vehicle allowance of Rs.30,000 and a telephone allowance of Rs.5000. In addition a quota of 170 liters of petrol is given monthly. The cost of a liter of petrol is Rs.162 and the monthly fuel allowance would be Rs.27,540.
Accordingly, the monthly cost for each adviser is Rs.92,540. The cost for all the advisers for a month would be Rs.2128420 and for a year it would be Rs.25541040. Mr. Dissanayaka’s question was regarding the cost for three years. So, the cost for three years is Rs.76623120.
However, Minister Dinesh Gunawardene’s answer was the cost for the advisers for three years was Rs.37798327.67. This indicates the data given to the Parliament is wrong.
