By Chathuri Dissanayake 

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told Parliament on Wednesday that the Government had been able to shelve Sri Lanka’s isolationist foreign policy and win the acceptance of the international community. 

“Our President and Prime Minister have been invited to a large number of countries during these two years. They have travelled to India, the UK, China, Pakistan, New York, Thailand, Malta, Paris, Holland, the Vatican, Germany and Austria and the President was invited to the G7 outreach summit in Japan,” he said during the Budget 2017 committee stage debate on the Foreign Ministry.  The Foreign Minister said that the Prime Minister had been invited to visit a number of other countries in the near future. Accordingly, he informed Parliament that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would visit Malaysia next week, while in January he is scheduled to visit Iran, UAE and Qatar. 

The Prime Minister has also been invited to visit Russia in March by President Vladimir Putin, he said. 

Revealing high levels of corruption in the ministry during the previous regime, the Minister said former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s son was allowed to live in a house rented by the Government costing the State over Rs. 27 million. 

“In 2013 there was no Consular General in Los Angeles but the ministry had rented a house. The rent was there till we found out in July 2015. During the time when there was no person appointed to that post we had paid Rs. 27 million as utilities payments and maintenance. We had to pay another $ 10,000 from the security deposit for damages to the property,” he said. 

“This is so much more and we are carrying out systematic investigations. We have taken steps to investigate all these issues. I even checked some of these things when I was in New York,” he claimed.

Joining the debate, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that the work and responsibilities of the Foreign Ministry was subcontracted to a few firms in the US. Samaraweera too highlighted the outsourcing done by the former regime, stating that the former Foreign Minister, Prof. G. L. Peiris, neglected his responsibilities and preferred instead to tour Africa on the State’s account. 

JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake asked the Government why no state officials had been held accountable for the alleged corruption that occurred during the past regime.  

Special Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate corruption allegations in FM 

JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti submitted a proposal to appoint a Parliament Select Committee with full legal powers to investigate the misappropriation of funds and other assets of the previous administration’s Foreign Ministry. 

“The issues highlighted by the Foreign Minister are grave and should be taken very seriously as a country. I suggest we appoint a special select committee with legal power to investigate corruption in the Foreign Ministry during the period from 2010 to 2015,” Handunnetti said. 

Both Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samarawickrama informed Parliament that they had no objection to Handunnetti’s proposal. 

“We agree. We can appoint the MPs as needed,” the Prime Minister stated.