UK to investigate £ 6.6 m aid given on anti-corruption campaign to Sri Lanka

By Shanika Sriyananda

The British Government has decided to initiate an inquiry to review on how £ 6.6 million worth of financial assistance grant to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has been spent in combating corruption.

Nagananda Kodituwakku, a lawyer and a public litigation activist, said that following a request made by him to the Secretary of State for International Development to inquiry into the transparent utilisation of funds granted to the CIABOC, the British Government had appointed Alispair Burt, a Parliamentarian from the ruling party, to look into the matter.

Kodituwakku, a Solicitor of UK, has written to the Secretary of State for International Development stressing the need for a cautious approach in international aid assistance and waste of the taxpayers’ money of the UK.

He said that CIABOC had received an aid of £ 6.6 million along with technical assistance through the Serious Fraud Office for specialist training to help the Government to strengthen its efforts to combat corruption.

In his letter, Kodituwakku alleged that the Government has no will to implement the laws of the land against the corrupt elements holding high offices in the Legislature and the Executive. 

“Two years ago, the people got rid of the corrupt regime of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but the present Government too is following the same path, institutionalising corruption,” he has noted in his letter.

Citing the alleged misuse of tax-free vehicles by Parliamentarians, including some of the Cabinet Ministers, as an example for institutionalised Government corruption, he charged CIABOC of openly promoting corruption.

“I have challenged against this organised high profile fraud in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on 19 December 2016 (Case ref: SC/Writs/07/2016), after a comprehensive investigation (Refer document attached hereto marked X1)  into this  gross abuse of public funds carried out with total impunity,” he has said in his letter.

He has also claimed that though he has informed the anti-corruption body about this financial crime, an independent and credible investigation has not been carried out by the CIABOC so far.

“I believe that the UK Government is under duty to ensure that all public funds granted for various countries by way of international aid are used appropriately for the intended purposes only. Therefore the UK Government should demand all the recipient countries to demonstrate total transparency in investing these funds only for the intended purposes,” he requested in his letter to the British Government.