Foreign travel by law enforcement officials becoming a trend 

The latest news is that officers from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have left for Australia to investigate and trace suspects in the case relating to an alleged bribe of $2 million from a European Airline during the acquisition process of a 10-aircraft fleet for SriLankan Airlines in 2013.

They hope to record a statement from one of the suspects in the case who is said to be residing in Australia. 

Prior to this, a team from the CID travelled to the UK to investigate whether the University of Wolverhampton issued an official invitation to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, or if his 2023 trip to his wife’s graduation was a personal visit in the guise of being an official one.

A team led by CID Director Shani Abeysekara also travelled to France recently to record a statement from a man named Asad Maulana, who the CID thinks will provide the smoking gun to help them prove a conspiracy behind the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Moulana was entertained at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Paris by the CID officials who sat down with him for a few hours to record a statement. It didn’t cross their minds that Moulana is wanted in Sri Lanka in connection with two cases pending against him and is on the run seeking asylum in Switzerland.

Now the latest jaunt is to Australia where the CID/CIABOC officials think they can collect enough evidence relating to the SriLankan Airlines case.

The law enforcement authorities in Sri Lanka work with Interpol and other foreign law enforcement agencies including those in Australia and the UK and there is no need for local officials to travel at State cost to these countries, bag and baggage to record statements which, if necessary, can be done by video links. There are also serious questions if the statements they record will be admissible as evidence in court during a trial as they will be highly contested by the defence. All the while their overseas travel and accommodation bill will be incurred by State coffers.

The costs being incurred for such travel are being kept under wraps. Attempts to obtain how much was spent on the CID officers to travel to the UK for the Ranil Wickremesinghe case could not be obtained after the Police Department ignored a Right to Information (RTI) request filed  by a journalist. An appeal is pending.

Certainly, there are many cases that warrant investigation and prosecution, especially where corruption and misappropriation of public funds are concerned but given that the CID and the CIABOC are turning a blind eye to corruption and wrongdoing within those in this Government makes it obvious that they are applying the law selectively to serve their agendas or those of their political masters.

Take the case of the $2.5 million (approx. Rs. 800 million) which went missing from the Treasury. Hackers had diverted a foreign bilateral debt repayment intended for Australia, transferring the funds into fraudulent US shell company accounts. Now that the CID and the CIAOBC officials are in Australia they should investigate this case as well and discuss with their Australian counterparts how the Sri Lanka Finance Ministry officials were so easily hoodwinked. While the CID is in a foreign travel mode, maybe a team should head to Japan too to see if they can trace the missing PhD of the former NPP speaker MP Asoka Ranwala. 

There was a time whenever a high-profile crime took place in Sri Lanka, the governments in power would get down a team from Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation. 

Since the NPP came to power, the trend is for CID officials to travel overseas, on business we are told. 

While the CID and other Government intuitions should investigate criminal activity, travelling overseas to obtain evidence will not be of much help judging by some of the previous jaunts. What they should do is seek the assistance of the authorities in the countries concerned and use the connections with Interpol to assist them.