Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Wednesday (Nov 30) charged that a house had been rented as the official residence of the Sri Lankan Consul General in Los Angeles in 2013 and a sum of Rs. 27.6 million has been spent for it while it was occupied by former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s son for more than a year. Participating in the budget debate in Parliament yesterday he said US Dollars 10,000 had been paid as a deposit for it. Minister Samaraweera also charged that Rs. 2.3 billion had been spent for overseas visits during the Rajapaksa regime between 2012 and 2014. Meanwhile, Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s allegation. While posting a Tweeter message Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa said making such allegations is a cheap tactic to discredit him.
