Cabinet champions crusade against corruption

Friday, 23 January 2015 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

World Bank, IMF, Reserve Bank of India experts to assist with VIP foreign assets probe
Anti-corruption committee under PM to probe irregularities at EPF, CSE
Team headed by Justice Minister to draft legislation to make declaration of foreign assets mandatory
No new official vehicles for President, PM, Ministers: Cabinet decides

By Dharisha Bastians The Government has decided to enlist experts from international lending agencies and the Indian Central Bank’s financial intelligence unit to track down wealth hidden abroad by VIPs, as part of a wide-ranging probe into corruption by the previous regime.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s first Cabinet meeting focused heavily on anti-corruption and good governance, with a series of measures introduced to curb Government waste and demand accountability for what his Government has termed “large-scale corruption” over the past nine years. All ministers were requested to submit a report of malpractice and fraud that may have taken place at each ministry to the Prime Minister as early as possible. Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters at his first briefing yesterday that “billions of rupees” had been stashed by VIPs in the previous Government in bank accounts overseas. The Government would soon receive bank account details pertaining to billions deposited by coercion into the accounts of certain high profile members of the previous administration, Senaratne said. “Money for development investment was deposited in personal accounts by force and four days before the election, officials have issued letters through their secretaries promising to return the money - all the documentation is in our possession,” the Minister explained. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe informed Cabinet on Wednesday that officials from the Indian Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit and experts from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had already agreed to assist with the probe. “The World Bank helped with a specialised probe like this in India and so far they have only been able to uncover 25% of assets hidden overseas. The task requires spec

ialised personnel,” Cabinet Spokesman Minister Senaratne said. He explained that this was the first time in Sri Lanka that such a probe on foreign assets owned by its citizens would be undertaken. The Government already had information regarding some of these assets which would be handed over to the investigating team, Minister Senaratne asserted. Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka who also attended the Cabinet briefing, said about Rs. 200 billion had been siphoned off through inflated highways projects, according to a survey by the Moratuwa University. Senaratne added that estimates for projects commissioned by the previous regime had been inflated to about three to four times their actual value. The Cabinet of Ministers, which met on Wednesday, approved the establishment of a high level Committee Against Corruption (CAC), to be chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate corrupt activities by the defeated Rajapaksa administration. Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Champika Ranawaka and Rauff Hakeem, and MPs R. Sampanthan, M.A. Sumanthiran and Anura Kumara Dissanayake will also serve as members of the committee. The anti-graft committee will also include Gen. Sarath Fonseka and lawyers Jayampathy Wickremaratne and J.C. Weliamuna and UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema. One of the CAC’s long-term projects will be to take action to acquire funds relating to fraudulently carried out financial dealings outside the country and to punish those responsible for such dealings, the Cabinet of Ministers decided. The CAC will also probe irregularities at the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Employees Provident Fund, the Cabinet of Ministers decided. The Committee will also formulate legislation to make it compulsory for citizens to divulge the sources of undeclared wealth, the Cabinet decided on Wednesday. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe will head a committee that will prepare the draft legislation, the Cabinet of Ministers decided. The new administration also set up an Urgent Response Committee to act upon the recommendations of the CAC, headed by JVP Leader and watchdog MP, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Dissanayake’s Urgent Response team will include state officials, police and CID and financial and auditing experts.

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