The Bribery and Corruption Commission (BCC) is now probing Deputy Minister of Petroleum Industries Minister Sarana Gunawardena’s bank accounts and other assets including land, Commissioner of the Bribery and Corruption Commission, Jagath Balapatabendi told The Nation yesterday.“I have put my investigation unit to check the assets of Deputy MinisterSarana Gunawardena which includes his bank accounts and land owned by him,” the Commissioner said.
He elaborated that investigations into assets were long drawn and it would consume considerable time for bribery sleuths to get a detailed dossier on Gunawardena’s assets.The Commission recently stepped into investigate bribery allegations against minister Gunawardena involving a sum of Rs.5 ½ million on a complaint by a businessman, Duminda Lanka Liyanage who claimed that the minister in question had asked for Rs.2 million from him and a further Rs.3 ½ million to grant him permission to construct the ‘Greenpath Housing Complex’ in Horagolla, Attanagalla.
However, the deputy minister has denied these allegations through a counter complaint to the police that the businessman was annoyed because his (businessman) housing complex request had not met with approval.The Inspector General of Police, moving in the matter, referred the investigations to the Bribery and Corruption Commissioner.
The Sarana Gunawardena investigation comes in the wake of a series of cases referred to the Bribery and Corruption Commissioner by virtue of a presidential directive to probe the assets of politicians including ministers and MP’s not so long ago.All these cases are presently under investigation, the Commissioner said adding that investigations were long drawn due to his sleuths checking on the assets of politicians.
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