News
IMF extends anti-corruption law deadline by six months to get more public feedback
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has extended by six months the deadline granted for Sri Lanka to pass the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) so that more public feedback can be obtained.
Accordingly, members of a high-level committee that had developed the POCA policy, legal framework and draft provisions had consultations yesterday with some experts who presented proposals on how the law could be improved.
The POCA will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka and envisages the forfeiture of the proceeds or “fruits” of crime. The IMF initially insisted on it being passed by April this year, before it released the third tranche of US$ 337 million. The government now has time till November.
“We have been directed by the (Justice) Minister to give a hearing to civil society organisations that were keen to discuss this with us,” said Kuvera de Zoysa, PC, who is part of the 17-member committee, yesterday. “Since the government has certain deadlines from donor agencies, we are trying to do this as fast as possible,” he said.
After a meeting with civil society representatives in the morning, the committee members discussed among themselves whether the existing draft should be modified or improved to reflect their suggestions.
The draft POCA was jointly presented to the Cabinet by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe earlier this year. It allows for restraint, preservation, seizure, protection, management (particularly of going concerns), judicial freezing and forfeiture of proceeds of crime.
It also provides for post-conviction forfeiture of proceeds of crime and non-conviction-based forfeiture of proceeds of crime. An agency is proposed to be created for protection, management and preservation and is called the Proceeds of Crime Management Authority (PCMA).
But experts have said it can be improved and strengthened to prevent abuse. For instance, they stress the need for allocating adequate resources and funding to the proposed PCMA. They also raised concerns about the “unfettered discretion” granted to the Justice Minister in appointing its board of directors.
The IMF’s latest review released last month said Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption legal framework needed further strengthening “with a more comprehensive asset recovery provisions law,” which will be enacted through the POCA by November this year (delayed from April 2024 “to accommodate needed public consultation and technical work”).
It also said the recently passed Anti-Corruption Act must be rapidly operationalised “to address current corruption vulnerabilities associated with the lack of an effective mechanism to review and publish asset declarations by public officials and to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.”
The government has made a new commitment to publish a strategic plan for the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, in consultation with the IMF, describing its mission, objectives, time-bound actions for operations, and a monitoring framework, together with the submission of its annual budget, by October 2024.
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