News
50 new bribery cases coming to courts
The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) is taking steps to file as many as 50 court cases shortly regarding long-running bribery and corruption investigations which have now been completed.
A majority of the accused who are to be indicted are government officials, including several senior officials, CIABOC sources said.
The court cases to be filed include several investigations that had been completed some time ago, though indictments had not been filed.
Indictments are to be filed before the Colombo High Court.
Meanwhile, the CIABOC’s investigation into Parliamentarian Chamara Sampath Dassanayake has ground to a halt following the media statement made by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Mr. Dassanayake was arrested by the Bribery Commission on charges of causing a loss of Rs. 17.3 million to the state by withdrawing funds from several fixed deposit accounts of the Uva Provincial Council that had been maintained at a state bank prior to them reaching maturity when he was Chief Minister of the Uva Provincial Council in 2016.
Former President Wickremesinghe, however, recently released a statement noting that the incident in question had taken place during the time he was Prime Minister and that Mr Dassanayake had withdrawn the funds in line with a circular issued by the Treasury Secretary with the approval of then-President Maithripala Sirisena. The circular stated that provincial council funds could not be placed in fixed deposit accounts and that both government funds and other allocated funds must be spent within the same year or returned to the Ministry of Finance or the relevant provincial council ministry.
The CIABOC had earlier informed Mr Wickremesinghe to provide a statement to its officials on April 17 regarding his statement, but he had informed the commission that it would be difficult for him to come on that date. However, no new date has yet been given for Mr Wickremesinghe to give a statement on the matter.
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