Ranil gets fresh date by Bribery Commission to make statement

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been given a fresh date to appear before the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) to make a statement regarding the comments he made  about corruption charges filed by the Commission against MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake.

The new date given is April 25.

Earlier Mr Wickremesinghe was requested to appear before the Commission on April 17, but he wanted a fresh date as he was not available during that period.

Meanwhile  CIABOC’s investigation into MP  Dassanayake had ground to a halt following the media statement made by former President 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noting that the incident in question had taken place during the time he was Prime Minister, and that Mr Dassanayake had withdrawn the funds in line with a circular issued by the Treasury Secretary with the approval of then President Maithripala Sirisena, stating that Provincial Council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.

Commission sources said that it would be difficult to take forward a case against Mr. Dassanayake if what Mr. Wickremesinghe said is correct.

While the CIABOC can still ignore Mr. Wickremesinghe’s statement and file a case against Mr. Dassanayake, the Commission is of the view that it must first question Mr. Wickremesinghe before deciding on whether to file a case, sources added.

Commission sources said they were prepared to visit Mr. Wickremesinghe at his residence to record the statement.