Lanka Loses Half A Billion-Dollar MCC Grant; Gota Rewards Main Culprit As US Envoy
Sri Lanka lost USD 480 million or nearly a half billion dollars when the Board of Directors of the US Government Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) cancelled the already approved grant. At its most recent meeting on December 15 the MCC Board decided to discontinue the already approved grant to Sri Lanka while unanimously adding Sierra Leone, Kiribati and Solomon islands to the programme and continuing assistance to Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Niger.
In 2005 President Mahinda Rajapaksa initiated an application for the MCC grant sending the then secretary to the Prime Minister, Sirisena Amarasekera to Washington to discuss the request. These initial efforts were unsuccessful since Sri Lanka failed to meet the MCC eligibility criteria, which include healthy democratic rights and corruption control indicators. After reviving the application in 2015, the Yahapalana government was ready