Vidya Amarapala resigns over allegations

Adviser to the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development Vidya Amarapala has step down today in the wake of his name is being implicated in the Panama leaks papers.

As a former chairman of Ceylon Electricity Board from 2010 to 2011, Mr Amarapala also held the post of Executive Officer of IWS Holdings and Director of the Sovereign Capital Corporation, a Singapore based company from 2003 to 2010. It was owned by Arthur Senanayake who is also holding the ownership of the IWS Holdings.

So far there has been no reports suggesting that IWS Holdings implicated any financial irregularities. However as the present government policy of transparent and corruption free governance, Mr Amarapala decided to resign from his designation as adviser until his name is cleared by the authorities.

According to a statement released by the ministry, the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) has been notified to conduct an investigation to determine whether the Sovereign Capital Corporation was involved in any financial frauds in 2003 to 2010 during which Mr Amarapala was the Director.

In a email message to the minister Patali Champika Ranawaka informing his resignation from the office, he noted that some media outlets have carried false allegations against him implicating his name with Panama leaks.

“My affliation to Sovereign Capital Cooperation, the company in question is operating in Singapore and has invested in Sri Lanka through BOI in to IWS Logistics, a company under IWS Holdings group in which I worked from 1991- 2010. I was appointed to said Sovereign Capital Cooperation as an executive Director in 2003 and I have resigned in 2010. My appointment was to represent IWS Logistics interest and was never a signatory to any financial transaction,” he said.