SundayTimes
DG says no probe possible without commissioners
More than 500 complaints of bribery and corruption have piled up by last Thursday since the term of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption ended in March — and the commission still remains deactivated.
The commission’s term ended on March 29 and a new three-member commission is still to be appointed in terms of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. “As there is no Commission, I am unable to get directives and cannot probe any complaints,” Commission’s Director General Lakshmi Jayawickrema told the Sunday Times.
She said she was unable to proceed with investigations as the law required that directives should be given by the commissioners. Besides complaints of bribery and corruption, the commission is also empowered to call for declaration of assets of persons who are alleged to have accumulated wealth illegally.
The Sunday Times learns that many such complaints, particularly during the last parliamentary elections where some candidates spent vast amounts of undeclared money, could not be probed because of the non-appointment of commissioners.
The last conviction in a bribery case was on March 31 this year when the Warakapola Pradeshiya Sabha chairman was sentenced to six months’ jail and fined for accepting a bribe of Rs 250,000.
Under the Bribery and Corruption Commission Act, complaints are forwarded to the commissioners who decide if they warrant further investigations or come under their purview. Once investigations are completed, the cases are referred back to the commissioners to decide if they should be sent to the Attorney General’s Department for prosecution or prosecuted by the commission itself.
The director general said there were about 1, 500 cases pending before the commission. These included complaints against politicians, mainly local council members, police officers and school principals.
Asked about the case pending against a minister who is accused of having Rs. 400 million of unaccounted money in his bank account, Ms. Jayawickrema said the case was before the local division of the Commission.