Non-prosecution of mega fraudsters:

Govt draws heavy flak

By Lalin Fernandopulle

The Government has drawn heavy flak for undermining good governance by aiding and abetting mega scale fraudsters and not expediting the prosecution of culprits who continue to roam freely and even accuse the current Government of being corrupt.

The Anti Corruption Committee Secretariat (ACCS) has received a large number of complaints related to massive financial frauds and after preliminary studies, the files are handed over to the Fraud and Corruption Investigation Division (FCID) of the police for investigations, an official said. Investigations have already been launched in several cases he said, but declined to reveal details of the investigations.

The Kerawalapitiya thermal power plant, the purchase of MIF-27 aircraft for the Air Force and the oil-hedging deal of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) are some of the mega financial crimes that have been reported.

The financial loss to the Government in these three mega frauds accounts for over $ 515 million.

These are not new cases and all of these suspicious deals have been revealed and extensively discussed in the media but no proper investigations have been carried out.

There are several complaints regarding frauds which took place under the Ministry of Economic Development of the former Government. One complaint to be investigated is the corruption that took place during the setting up of the Divinneguma Department.

The department was set up amalgamating the Samurdhi Authority, Southern Development Authority and the Udarata Development Authority. The complaint alleges that a massive fraud took place in the payment of compensation and gratuity the employees whose services were terminated or voluntarily retired during the conversion to the Divineguma Department.

The value of the alleged fraud is estimated at Rs. 596 million. The ACCS calls for public support, especially from officials in these government organisations to get further information regarding large-scale financial crimes, he said.

It has come to light that besides the Rajapaksa regime which allegedly amassed wealth in overseas banks, a few of those who were close to the regime had made undue gains through mismanagement and malpractices under the protective shield of the regime.

The present Government has constantly denied accusations that it is has made secret deals with crooks and is shielding them. The biggest accusation today is that the unity government has been formed with some of those in the SLFP camp who were branded as ‘rogues'.

The official said that corrupt people at top positions in government organisations are obstructing investigations and prosecution of culprits and it is the main reason for the slow progress in the process.

People are unhappy over the delay in taking action against corrupt politicians and officials. In most of the institutions the investigators have to call for vital information from the same corrupt officials. There is also a possibility of important evidence being deliberately destroyed.

"In some cases though the investigations have been completed, prosecution is delayed and we have a doubt as to whether officials at the Attorney General Department and some police officers continue to protect the people of the former corrupt regime," he said.

When contacted, the Ministry of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child, Youth and Cultural Affairs Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva said that the government is going after the crooks and added that he was certain that fraudsters will be prosecuted in the coming weeks.

"We have purposely left out the rogues and I agree that there are questionable issues.

The group that joined the government is relatively clean. Except for a couple of them there are no major allegations and this will not have any impact on the economy," he said.

The Bribery Commission will not take into consideration which side the crooks belong to. After April 23, the Commission will be free to deal with them.

“With regard to Port City, facts must be established which the government is doing today to verify the claims that it was launched without proper transparency and brushing aside the impact on the environment. The environment cannot be ignored.

The matter has been taken to courts. We need to wait till the study is over,” Dr. de Silva said. Several attempts to contact Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka for his views on prosecuting perpetrators failed.