COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s leftist government asked former presidents, including the once-powerful Rajapaksa brothers, on Tuesday (Jan 21) to immediately vacate luxury government bungalows as part of a new austerity drive.
The government has decided to convert the stately homes into upmarket boutique hotels or museums, Information Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told reporters in Colombo.
He said the state would pay former leaders rent totalling US$107 a month, as they are entitled to under a 1986 law, instead of providing government housing.
Jayatissa noted that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was occupying a government house with a monthly rental value of US$16,500, which is more than 150 times his official entitlement.
“The government will not provide housing for ex-presidents or their widows in future,” Jayatissa said.
“They will only receive a rent allowance equivalent to one-third of their pension, which is 30,000 rupees (US$100).”
There was no immediate comment from Mahinda Rajapaksa, but a local media report said he was willing to vacate if given written notice.
Jayatissa said the former leader could take Tuesday’s public statement as his notice and vacate the premises immediately.
Media reports said Rajapaksa, as prime minister in 2021, had spent some 800 million rupees of government money refurbishing the house he currently occupies as a former president.
His younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to step down from the presidency in July 2022 over allegations of economic mismanagement and corruption, is also occupying a state mansion.
Two other former presidents – Chandrika Kumaratunga and Maithripala Sirisena – are living in government housing in Colombo’s fashionable diplomatic quarters.
Many of the houses were built during British colonial rule for top civil servants from London.
Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September on a pledge to fight corruption and tightened his grip after his party won a landslide in snap parliamentary polls.
The new government drastically reduced the number of security personnel assigned to former leaders last month, a move that authorities said saved more than 1,200 million rupees annually for taxpayers.
The security of the two Rajapaksa brothers cost the state more than 1,017 million rupees last year, the government said.
They ruled Sri Lanka for a decade until 2015 and again from November 2019 to July 2022.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to step down in 2022 as Sri Lanka faced its worst economic meltdown, with foreign reserves plummeting and the nation running out of dollars to finance imports of essentials such as food, fuel and medicines.
The number of bodyguards allocated to all former leaders has been reduced to a maximum of 60 since late December.