Australian documentary contends corrupt transactions in Hambantota hospital project

Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s leading investigative journalism and current affairs programme, Four Corners, recently released a documentary suggesting a major corruption case pertaining to the multi-million dollar hospital project in Hambantota.

Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s leading investigative journalism and current affairs programme, Four Corners recently released a documentary revealing a major corruption case pertaining to the multi-million dollar hospital project in Hambantota. The documentary reveals how Aspen Medical, a little-known private healthcare firm won billion dollar contracts to procure personal protective equipment at the height of the pandemic, its links to Sri Lanka, million dollar financial transactions to companies owned by Sri Lankans and their ties to the ruling family of Sri Lanka.

The video reveals how Aspen Medical profited from the pandemic and got itself embroiled in an international criminal investigation into corruption and money laundering. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Federal Government had outsourced the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), selecting companies without any public tender. This is how Aspen Medical, a Canberra-based health service provider, specialised in recruiting medical staff emerged as the winner, winning contracts worth more than USD 1.1 billion to supply PPEs on a national scale. 

Former employees, who have held executive positions, say that the company had never done such procurements before. Aspen Medical’s contracts were worth USD 500 million more than any other providers. 

Andrew Walker, co-founder and former chairman of Aspen Medicals, said that it has never procured face masks before.

The latter part of the video reveals Aspen medical’s involvement in setting up the District General Hospital in Hambantota, a multi- million dollar hospital project that was initiated in 2012. 

Aspen’s role was purely as a financial intermediary further showing proof of Aspen receiving funds and paying those funds back out to contractors in return to a 4% handling fee.
The spreadsheet reveals the first and largest of Aspen Medical’s payments were made to a mysterious company called Sabre Vision Holdings domiciled in the notorious tax haven in the British Virgin Islands. The payments totalled 1.4 million Euros which is about 2 million Australian dollars. The company was owned by Nimal Perera, whose name has been allegedly linked to many corruption scandals. 

The video reveals that the money wasn’t received by the hospital, but instead was used to purchase a property at an affluent suburb in Colombo. Journalist Linton Besser speaks to the camera in front of No. 7, Gower Street and claims that the property purchased by Perera was combined with this property that housed the private offices of Namal Rajapaksa. The video also includes statements from former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Eran Wickremeratne and Wasantha Samarasinghe who were shocked by the revelations made by Four Corners.