News
Four commissions nominated; approval by President on Tuesday
View(s):President Maithripala Sirisena is expected to confirm by Tuesday the nominees to four Independent Commissions, including the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), which is to be headed by retired Supreme Court Justice T.B. Weerasuriya.
The new CIABOC, which has been widely called for in view of thousands of complaints of large-scale corruption or bribery, will be appointed in the coming days and will have additional powers to investigate allegations of bribery and corruption of its own accord and institute prosecutions for offences under the relevant law.
The additional powers have been vested in CIABOC in terms of the 19th Amendment passed in Parliament in April this year.
The newly appointed 10-member Constitutional Council, headed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, has nominated 24 persons to be appointed to four independent commission, including CIABOC.
The other commissions are the National Police Commission, the Public Services Commission and the Human Rights Commission.
The PSC is likely to be headed by the former Public Administration Ministry Secretary D. Dissanayake while the NPC is to be headed by retired DIG Gunasena Thenabadu, who served as Legal Director in the Police Department.
Other members of the NPC will include retired DIG Gamini de Silva, and P.H. Manatunga, who had served as the Examiner of Questioned Documents. The CC will meet again on November 4 to nominate members to six other independent commissions. The six commissions to which members are to be named are the Elections Commission, the Finance Commission, the Delimitation Commission, the National Procurement Commission, the University Grants Commission and the Official Languages Commission.
The members of the National Audit Commission will be named after the National Audit Bill is passed by Parliament, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said. The minister himself is a member of the CC.