Remember Pandora’s Box

Over a month ago, the Presidential Secretariat announced that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) to launch an “immediate” investigation into the Sri Lankans and related transactions revealed in the Pandora Papers. He ordered the once-independent Commission to submit a report to him within a month. Early this week the Commissioner General of the Bribery Commission submitted an interim report to the President, saying a final report would take more time. The Bribery Commission informed the President that the bank accounts of businessman Thirukumar Nadesan were under scrutiny.

It is heartening that the Commission has pursued the case despite the fact that the Sri Lankans whose names appeared include close relatives of the current ruling family – namely Rajapaksa kinswoman Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband Thirukumar. As part of the presidential direction, the Bribery Commission summoned businessman Nadesan for questioning twice in October.

The ‘Pandora Papers’ were exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which named individuals who used offshore accounts and shell companies to conceal millions of dollars and, in many cases, to shield them from the taxman. Based on the Pandora Papers, Nadesan is said to have set up other shell companies and trusts in secret jurisdictions, and he used them to obtain lucrative consulting contracts from foreign companies doing business with the Sri Lankan Government and to buy artwork. The Pandora Papers also revealed that one-time Treasury Secretary R. Paskaralingam operated several shell companies while working with the Sri Lankan Government. Paskaralingam is a close associate of former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, proving that corruption, money laundering and financial misappropriation are common to both sides of the political divide. It is vital therefore that the Bribery Commission vigorously pursues this investigation, and that it is not permitted to go the way of most inquiries into financial crimes in Sri Lanka. 

Last year the Presidential Secretariat made a grand announcement about dealing with alleged corruption exposed internationally in February 2020. The Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration announced an immediate investigation into allegations made by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) that former Sri Lankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his wife had raked in commissions of at least $ 2 million in order to purchase Airbus A350 aircraft that the national carrier eventually decided it did not need. The bribes were transferred to an account maintained by Chandrasena’s wife in Singapore and linked once again to a shell company. Long before UK’s SFO revealed its findings about Chandrasena and his Airbus dealings, Sri Lanka’s Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) was on the trail of the former Sri Lankan Airlines CEO. The FCID, which had netted several high-profile officials still linked closely with the ruling family over corruption charges, was disbanded after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office.

Chandrasena and his wife have been out on bail since March 2020 and the case has gone nowhere despite the Presidential order for “immediate” action. 

With regard to the Pandora Papers investigation, there is no information in the public domain that there are any other law enforcement or financial regulatory agencies conducting investigations into the offshore assets linked to Nadesan and Paskeralingam. It is therefore up to the Bribery Commission to get to the bottom of the alleged money laundering scams. This does not hold out great hope for accountability. 

As for opposition activism on the issue, it has been virtually non-existent. The Nadesan and Paskeralingam dealings with foreign agents involved in contracts with the Government of Sri Lanka go back decades, to Presidents J.R. Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Chandrika Kumaratunga and of course Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, under whose father’s reign Nadesan allegedly raked in profits in connection with Air Lanka procurement and fleet upgrades, has stoically stayed away from the issue and his party has followed suit.

It is important to keep the memory alive regarding the extent to which the politically connected have profited at the expense of the Sri Lankan taxpayer, and how Government after Government, the robber barons have bled the country dry and never faced justice for their crimes. Public memory could prove a powerful tool of retribution the next time elections come around.