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| Sunday, 15 August 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Money, sex and ethics From the Kraal Mahout On assuming leadership of the United National Party, Ranil Wickremesinghe drew up a Code of Ethics for his parliamentarians and party men to ensure strict discipline. These ethics drafted by the legal team in the party spelt out drastic consequences for those who face allegations of bribery, corruption and indiscipline. Much to the surprise of the UNP leader who is reported to be holidaying in the salubrious island of Bali in Indonesia with his party Chairman Malik Samarawickreme, many of his men are being netted in on allegations of corruption and indiscipline. The recently remanded former Co-operatives Minister, A.R.M. Abdul Cader faces charges of misappropriating Samurdhi Funds meant for the poor while the newly elected Western Provincial Councillor Duminda Silva faces sex abuse and abduction allegations. Cader, a millionaire businessman from Gampola, also a financier of the UNP has been accused of collecting one million rupees to distribute 650 lunch packets during the holy season of Ramazan. This sum is reported to have been personally authorised by the then Minister S.B. Dissanayake. In another case, Dissanayake has been asked by the Bribery Commission to explain how he amassed Rs. 29 million as a minister of the PA and UNF governments. Cader is said to have named several mosques that requested aid. But, the Lebbes have denied such a request. This has put Cader in further difficulty as he spends the day at the Prisons Hospital under guard. Coming to Duminda Silva, the newly elected WPC member, the image of the UNP and the quality of its Code of Ethics look diluted as he becomes the first party man under Wickremesinghe to face sex abuse charges. Silva who topped the list in the preferences proudly put up posters in the city giving the number of preferences as 56,669. A few weeks later, the police was on his trail for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl and reportedly abducting her father. What the UNP has so far done is to appoint a committee to probe the allegations. With provisions already there in the UNP Code of Ethics to deal with such men, the appointment of a committee looks to be buying time till the court case is over. The question that is asked within the UNP is where did Duminda hide before he surrendered himself to court on Thursday. Investigations done by party senior men reveal that if and when there was a link to allegations of love or sex, there was a man in the party known as a "Whip" who backed such personalities. It was revealed that this "Whip" had given shelter to Duminda. This Whip is reported to be a good 'whipper' in and out of parliament and has a practice of introducing others also to the trade. When the alleged Rauff Hakeem-Kumari Cooray love story was revealed, this Whip was linked to it with a claim that he introduced Kumari to Rauff. Parliament sources revealed that a medical man who bears the name of a former UNP Chairman was also introduced into the sex trade by this Whip. Kumari Cooray, daughter of former UNP State Minister Mervyn J. Cooray had known this whip long before she was introduced to Rauff. Authoritative sources revealed that the Criminal Investigations Department is now probing a massive fraud at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, running into millions of rupees. A huge sum had been siphoned off to buy a few computers during the UNF government when Mahinda Samarasinghe was Labour Minister, Bureau sources said. The former Chairman of the Bureau, Susantha Fernando, a close friend of Samarasinghe, has already been charged in court over a fraud of Rs. 25 million involving Bureau funds. Incumbent Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne had ordered a full probe as the Rs. 156 million he left in 2002 as the then minister had decreased to Rs. 26 million after two years of the UNF government. He has also asked the Bureau to furnish the sum of money used from the Bureau for the personal publicity of the former UNF minister. It has also been alleged that former Public Administration Minister, Vajira Abeywardene has misused his position by influencing school Principals to admit Year One students to some schools in the Galle District. It is also alleged that he has done so with the concurrence of the former Education Minister Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku. Political influence on school Principals prevailed in the other districts too during the previous regime. Towards the tail end of the UNF government, the Director of Schools in Colombo, P. H. P. Geeganage and the Minister fell out when the Director refused to comply with lists from politicians on Year One admissions. |
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