Sri Lanka’s president boasted on Twitter earlier this week that his regime was ranked 9th in the “Global Response to Infectious Diseases Index” – a ranking system devised by a little known Australian accountancy organisation that has close ties to Sri Lanka’s ruling party.
“Honored to have #LKA ranked 9th,” tweeted Rajapaksa this week, as the Sri Lankan military led the state’s coronavirus strategy, with accused war criminal Shavendra Silva leading the coronavirus task force.
However, routine internet searches for the “Global Response to Infectious Diseases Index” show no recognition for the score, with the only source linking back to the website of the Certified Management Accountants, Australia.
Colombo Telegraph found that “former [Securities and Exchange Commission] Chairman who was indicted on financial misappropriation and money laundering charges and who is now a candidate on the SLPP nomination list Nalaka Godahewa is the President of the Sri Lanka Chapter of Certified Management Accountants, Australia”.
In addition, it stated,
“According to the CMA cites the website www.healthreviewglobal as the source of its information on Sri Lanka’s handling of the pandemic, a completely unknown organization. Colombo Telegraph conducted a brief investigation about the origins of the Health Review Global website cited by CMA to qualify Sri Lanka’s approach to tackling the crisis in the internet registry. Our investigation revealed that the website had been created on March 19, 2020.”
Despite the “Global Response to Infectious Diseases Index” having no clear methodology or scientific recognition, Sri Lanka’s official president’s media division claimed it was “designed to rank the efficiency and effectiveness of the leadership of the country and the preparedness of its health system to combat COVID 19” and boasted that both “Sri Lanka and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been ranked ninth position”.
Colombo Telegraph however spoke to several doctors from government hospitals across the island who, “speaking on the basis of strict confidentiality fearing reprisals and victimization, also confirmed that many patients were dying of ‘COVID-like symptoms’, but were cremated without testing for COVID”.
“They said that it was almost certain that these patients had contracted the virus, and should be considered as COVID-19 related deaths. If these were included, they said, the COVID-19 mortality rate would be many times higher than that reported by the Government”.
See more from Colombo Telegraph here.