Taking the fight forward

When the ‘Yahapalanaya’ Government came into power in 2015, one of its key campaign pledges was fighting corruption. Four years on one can argue there have been minimal results and this is partly due to the fact that there was no comprehensive strategy to battle corruption and little genuine political will to do so. As elections loom, the silver lining is that the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) is set to present new legislation to address loopholes in existing laws, and set the framework needed to take the fight forward.  

In 2017 CIABOC was given powers to amend three pieces of legislation, the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, Bribery Act, and Bribery Commission Act, which were last amended in 1994. The proposed legislation, now with the Legal Draftsman, is at its final stage, with plans to be presented before the Sectoral Oversight Committee Legal Affairs (anti-corruption) and Media on 9 August. The draft will then be sent to the Cabinet for approval before being tabled in Parliament. 

CIABOC Director General Sarath Jayamanne PC this week told a forum that asset declaration law, bribery law and the CIABOC law have existed for the last 35 to 40 years without amendments. The plan is to bring all these laws together and create a composite law with separate parts. 

The proposed legislation will include new laws which will address lacunae in the existing legislation, including introduction of legislation to address private sector bribery, and updating the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law. 

The proposed law will also give power to CIABOC to engage in preventive measures, giving it authority to insist on institutions changing their systems and procedures to prevent bribery and corruption, and take action under the National Action Plan for Combating Bribery and Corruption in Sri Lanka. 

The law, if passed, will also give provisions to set up a separate directorate under CIABOC for asset declaration, which would be online. The directorate will also have powers to carry out verification processes and forward any suspicious cases to CIABOC, Jayamanne said, explaining the key features of the new legislation. 

Currently, the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law does not have requirements to declare income or expenditure during the year, which CIABOC aims to address in the new law. This is now mostly done as a voluntary process by Transparency International with only a handful of parliamentarians coming on board. 

As a result, a new law has been drafted which would also enable the filing of asset declaration on an online platform, with plans to making the declaration accessible to public with restrictions on certain personal information. This would then address the current restrictions on publicising asset declarations on Members of Parliament, which is filed to the Speaker, and those of Cabinet Ministers, which are filed with the President’s Office. The proposed laws will also address conflict of interest in holding public office, which has not been addressed to date. 

These are important steps and even with elections around the corner it is important that stakeholders continue to push for these changes and then stage fresh battles to implement the law. Good governance and accountability is an uphill battle in most countries around the world. The real challenge is to never give up.