Sirisena issued a ‘yellow card’ to commissions says SLFP

Defends remarks by the President but gives different explanations

By Chamodi Gunwardana

Defending President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement on the performance of the country’s three corruption investigation bodies, Ministers from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday said that the President was only issuing an initial warning to the heads of those institutions.

“He was only giving them a yellow card,” said SLFP Spokesperson and Minister Dilan Perera. 

The President cautioned the heads of the Bribery Commission, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) not to follow a political agenda when investigating cases of corruption. 

“That statement did not reflect that the President was suspicious of the conduct of those institutions, he just tried to say that he was aware of what they were doing,” Perera said.

Holding up Joint Opposition (JO) Parliamentarian D.E.W. Gunesekara’s autobiography, Dilan Perera claims the book, which exposes the past actions of JO members to influence investigations carried out by a different commission, is a must-read

When asked if it was fair for the President to criticise the commission heads after he himself had appointed them, Perera insisted that the President was meting out criticism but not undermining their independence. 

However, he alleged that it was impossible to receive an independent investigation from the FCID due to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s involvement in the division. 

“The FCID is being controlled by the Premier so it will be politicised,” he insisted.  

In contradiction to Perera’s remarks, Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa claimed that the President’s statement was aimed at regulating the commissions in order to improve the quality of their work.

“The President wanted to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of those bodies to conduct independent probes over corruption and fraud allegations both from the past regime and current Government. He is in a position to empower those institutes more,” Yapa highlighted.

They also insisted that the bond between the two parties in the Government was still strong, denying speculation of disagreement between the President and Prime Minister, which surfaced after President Sirisena’s speech last week.

“Some people said the President slammed the Bribery Commission, FCID and CID to show his objection to the United National Party’s (UNP) involvement in investigations. Some people said the statement displayed the President’s regret over creating a Unity Government with the UNP. All those claims are baseless,” Yapa said.

However, contrary to the explanations given by his two ministerial colleagues, Social Empowerment and Welfare Minister S.B. Dissanayake claimed that President Sirisena made the remarks to show that he was unaware of the legal action taken against three naval officers and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.