Colombo: A brother of President Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday became the Minister of Finance, tightened the family grip on power in the South Asian country for facing growing economic problems.
Basil Rajapaksa, 70, took over the financial portfolio of other brothers, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The 72-year-old President has placed Mahinda responsible for economic policy and the newly created ministry planning.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, 75, is the president of the country for a decade until 2015, and Basil, known as a family political strategist, manages the economy.
Basil is responsible now after the economy recorded a contraction of 3.6 percent caused by Koronavirus for 2020, the worst since the independence from England in 1948.
With entries, the cabinet headed by Gotabaya now has five members of the Rajapaksa family.
SULTY BROTHER CHAMAL, 78, is Minister of Irrigation while the eldest son of Prime Minister Namal, 35, is the Minister of Youth and Sports.
Some family members Rajapaksa hold the position of junior minister and other key positions in the administration.
Basil Rajapaksa described as “ten percent” at the 2007 US Embassy cable published by the WikiLeaks organization because the commission suspected of being taken from a government contract.
He has denied the mistakes and questions failed to find evidence to return the allegations he sucked millions of dollars from the state treasury.
As a citizen of the dual US-Sri Lankan, Basil was prohibited from establishing in the 2020 election, but Gotabaya issued constitutional provisions that prevented the legislative entry.