Lanka to play key role in int’l anti-graft body

The government will play a key role to set up an international corruption body at the anti-corruption summit in London, next week.

President Maithripala Sirisena is due to leave for London on May 11 to attend the summit initiated by the UK government. British Prime Minister David Cameron extended an invitation to the Sri Lankan government to attend the event, when the two leaders met at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta last year. When contacted by the Sunday Observer, a senior government spokesman for the President’s Office said the Sri Lankan delegation to the London anti-corruption summit has not yet been finalised.

The new international agency, according to Sir Eric Pickles, Cameron’s anti-corruption adviser, is likely to involve broadening the remit of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is already undertaking work on bribery and international tax rules. While this body would not have law enforcement powers of its own, it would act as an information exchange for governments committed to fight corruption.

The anti-corruption body will be a permanent institutional legacy of the summit, alongside a series of other commitments that countries attending the summit can adopt.

Representatives from nearly 40 countries will attend the event, including all 20 member states of the G20.

Commenting on President Sirisena’s involvement in setting up the global anti-corruption body, the government spokesman said it would immensely support investigations carried out by the Sri Lankan authorities.

“It must be stated that the President will not focus on individual cases during his visit to London. He will have discussions with world leaders to form the global framework to fight bribery and corruption. Sri Lanka will certainly benefit from a robust global framework and it will, in return, strengthen our local bodies probing bribery and corruption. There are multiple cases where certain top-notch members of the previous regime had allegedly used overseas channels to hide their undisclosed assets,” he said.