Bribery Commission gets more teeth

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Bribery has been an offense punishable under the Penal Code from as far back as 1883 and during the British rule bribery was introduced as a criminal offense into the Statute Book. In 1954 the Bribery Act was enacted to contain bribery in the Public Service and the Bribery Commissioner's Department was established by Act No.40, in 1958 under the Ministry of Justice.

Making drastic changes in the subject , the People's Alliance Government which came to power in 1994 with the support of all political parties, created the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption under the Act No. 19 of 1994.

The first Commission commenced activities on December 15, 1994. The Commission consists of three members, two of whom are retired Judges of the Supreme Court or of the Court of Appeal and the other commissioner shall be a person with wide experience relating to the investigation of crime and law enforcement and normally a former Inspector General of Police is appointed as a Commissioner.

Every member of the Commission holds office for a period of five years and shall not be eligible for re-appointment. The earlier Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption was constituted on March 29, 2005 and Justice Ameer Ismail served as the Chairman of the Commission while Justice P. Edussuriya and former IGP T. I. de Silva served as the other two commissioners.

The present commission was appointed on May 15, 2011 after the earlier commission lapsed its mandate in March 2010. Currently Justice D. J. de S. Balapatabendi serves as the Chairman while Justice L.K. Wimalachandra and Dr. Jayantha Wickramaratne are serving as the commissioners.

The Sunday Observer interviewed Dr. Jayantha Wickremaratne who is serving as one of the commissioners to learn how the activities commission is going on after it was appointed on May 15 last year. Following is the excerpts of the interview.

Q: The present Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption was appointed in May 2011. What kind of progress has the Commission shown within the past few months in detecting and combating the cases of bribery or corruption in Sri Lanka?

A: The present commission started its work with a backlog of cases pending for inquiry at the commission due to the non appointment of the commission. One of the major things we had to do was to clear the backlog of cases. Without a commission this institution cannot function. The investigation officers can't initiate an inquiry without the commission.

When we take the Commission Act, there are three basic mandatory requirements. One is, the Chairman of the Commission has to be a retired Supreme Court Judge. The other commissioner has to be a retired Appeal Court Judge.

The third commissioner has to be someone who have had experience in investigation and the law and order situation. So always a retired IGP was appointed. Prior to my appointment, Indra de Silva was appointed. To initiate an inquiry one of the three commissioners has to go through the complaints and give orders to initiate inquiries. At the initial stage we had to go through 2,700 cases that were pending for investigation.

Each one of us had to go through those complaints and give orders to initiate inquiries. We did that in the first few months and cleared the backlog and also have initiated inquiries on the complaints we received during the past few months.

Q: Clearing 2700 files pending investigations is not an easy task. What are the difficulties the commission had to face when clearing the backlog of files?

A: This is a key Government handling of the subject of bribery and corruption and we have to cater to different Departments, Ministries, Corporations and the corporate sector from Point Pedro to Dondra. So our scope is very high. As we took over, we realised the difficulties we are facing. But little by little we are continuing. Our vehicles which were used for more than 20 years were known to people. When we pass Bentota bridge they know that bribery commission vehicle is heading towards Galle. When we go to Motor Traffic Department on a tip-off they will identify our vehicles. So we have introduced new vehicles to avoid that.

When we took over, we were short of staff. Actually, we had about 100 Police officers and we need another 100 to commence the work. But we did not have much space. So we laid the foundation for a four storeyed building. We laid the foundation in August last year and by the end of this year we will be completing the construction.

In that way we started fulfilling logistical requirement to accommodate more investigation officers. Last week we recruited 20 Police officers as new Investigation Officers after interviewing more than 2000 Police officers who came for the interviews. For the time being we can accommodate only 20 but we need 100. On completion of the building we are recruiting the balance.

After the establishment of this commission a lot of complaints are coming. So we need lots of officers to investigate those complaints. We do not have branch offices. We are taking the Commission to every part of the country.

So we purchased new vehicles for the commission as most of the vehicles are more than 20 years old. We purchased cars and vans as we need unmarked vehicles.

At the same time we started conducting training sessions with the help of the Asian Development Bank and the UNDP. United Nations Development Fund is providing us financial assistance to conduct seminars to train our people and ADB also providing us assistance to our people to educate people on corruption matters. All these seminars and workshops will be targeted for the Investigation Officers and the Legal Officers. We have 20 Legal Officers and we are not going behind the AG's Department for legal advice. That is to maintain secrecy. In that way we are commencing investigations and are in the process of completing investigations

Q: Awareness on bribery and corruption also play a key role in combating bribery and corruption. What kind of program is the Commission following in this regard?

A: In mid March we are visiting the Northern province to have an awareness campaign for the general public and the officers and government servants based in those areas. Public will be informed well in advance through Grama Sevakas to mobile service and our legal officers will educate the government officers.

We are targeting till May the Northern province and in June and July we are concentrating the Eastern province. Now the Departments and Corporations are running in those areas.

What we need is for the public to understand the matters regarding bribery and corruption and to cooperate with us by providing information. Not only bribery, we are conducting investigations on corrupt practices.

We are conducting investigation on the wealth earned by various illegal means.

Q: We know there are a lot of cases on bribery and corruption. But what about the cases on the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law?

A: Actually under these cases we need a lot of time for investigations. After the commission was appointed we would have got 10 to 15 cases because you need very lengthy investigation. For instance we can ask some person for the wealth he is having and he will be having ten cars, four estates and so on.

He may be a senior officer at staff level. Once you leave the service we ask the assets declaration form. In that form you would have suppressed all these information. We will call these declaration form and compare the assets he is having through various sources. If they do not match with the assets you declared in the declaration form you will be recalled to give clarification. Then only the trouble starts.

Q: Does that mean that you do not need any complaint to investigate the assets?

A: We need complaint. Even an anonymous call will be ok. We are not going to ask from the employer. But we will collect all the information from outside and investigate into the complaint.

Q: The Elections Commissioner asked all the newly appointed Members of the Local Government bodies to declare their assets?

A: This is new phenomenon and this time we asked the Elections Commissioner to call these declaration forms from all the newly appointed members. The Elections Commissioner is now in the process of collecting these asset forms and they are very slow in this process. We can't ask them direct. We can go and investigate when there is a complaint but by the Elections Commissioner is empowered under this Act to ask for assets declaration form.

All the newly appointed members to the local council has to declare their assets irrespective of their position.

Under the section two of the Declaration of Liabilities and Assets Act number 1 of 1975, all the MPs, Ministers, heads of Government institutions, office bearers of political parties and executives of the Trade Union registered under Trade Union Ordinance, candidates of the elections, proprietors, editors and staff members of the editorial staff of newspapers, chairmen and staff officers of the companies registered under Companies Acts have to declare their assets.

Q: All these laws are in the books but many people are not aware of these facts?

A: Actually under the law you can't say 'I was not aware'. It is a cardinal principle. Under the Police Ordinance you can't urinate in a public place. People should know all these things.

This is accepted all over the world. If people are behaving under these laws no one will be involved in corruption.

Q: At the same time it is your responsibility to implement these laws properly.

A: We have to implement and it is our duty to go into these cases. We cannot say that we have not received a complaint.

The complaint can come as an information or a telephone call. Based on that we have to act. To meet this we are improving the logistical and manpower. With the increase of population and the open economy we have a big task. BOI people are coming here for various investments and people are going behind them to have money. So our role is becoming very large. So that is why we are improving logistical and human resources to increase our capacity.

Q: The other allegation is that all these investigations are targetting small people like Grama Sevakas and other minor officers. Those who taking bribes at major level have not been arrested ?

A:In our scope there is no difference between the high ranking officials and minor employees.

Each person is a respondent and a suspect. Whenever we get a complaint all the categories are under our investigation.

In certain cases some powerful persons may block all the evidence against them. They will buy those people who are talking against them.

They will pressurise the people not to make any complaint. But they will not be able to escape for ever.

They will be caught one day. We will be educating the public in this regard so that no one is above the law.

Q: How do you show the progress of your work in the means of the number of cases and the number of investigations?

A: A classic example is that for the past year from May to December we arrested 48 persons from all over the country under different categories. During the past no such number has been arrested. For example from 2005 to 2009 when the commission was formed, in 2007 they arrested only 32 people, that is for one year. For the past six months we arrested 48 persons.

Q: How many cases were filed in the Courts and how many persecuted?

A: That of course takes time. Generally an investigation has to be conducted and it takes time due to lack of staff. Number two is, we have to gather a lot of evidence. Generally I can say, out of 48, ten to 15 cases would have been filed.

Q: People see a slow progress on the part of investigations What is the reason for this?

A: That is because of the lack of staff. We are going to recruit more people once we get logistical requirement. Lack of training is also a problem. The ADB and the UNDP is providing funds for training people and finding experts on this subject.

Q: Set aside the complaints, we see a lot of newspaper articles or in the websites about some known figures taking bribes and being engaged in corrupt practices. Can't you take action to investigate them?

A: We can take action on those reports. If we receive complaints in the form of a photo copy of the newspaper article highlighting the fact, we can take action. In some cases we conduct our own investigation, if we get information that people are taking bribes.

At the Motor Traffic Department we conducted our own investigations and arrested two people who used to take bribes. One person was arrested when he was receiving Rs. 150,000 as a bribe.

Q: Bribery and corruption is becoming a big challenge to Sri Lanka and it has become a factor to even hamper the development process in the country. How the Bribery Commission is going to take up this challenge?

A: We are aware of this challenge and it is our bounden duty to conduct investigation and to get rid of these corrupt people. A lot of government projects were held up due to these corrupt practices. We are working in our fullest capacity and we are requesting certain areas which are not known to us to be informed to us.

There is no need to have any complaint, even an information can be provided. Even if you can provide that information without a signature we can act on it. We are focussing more on BOI projects and other fields where the big companies are coming to invest in Sri Lanka. From the time they come in there is a big process.

The government is involved in granting of visa, granting of BOI status, granting of land and other requirements. Many corrupt practices can take place during this process. But we are prepared to handle those cases and we are strengthening our capacity to do that task.

Q: Do you have enough funds to continue these roles?

A: Not enough funds. But we can say that we are utilising the funds at maximum . We are utilising the funds from the ADB and UNDP .

Q: What sort of international support

A: We are getting annual scholarships from Hong Kong, and from China also we get scholarships.

The Chinese Government offered us. We are sending six officers to Singapore. Our legal officers have gone to Malaysia. That is also not enough.

Q: What is your message to the people on the Commission to Investigate Allegation on Bribery or Corruption ?

A: Bribery and corruption is not essential in any society. If you are qualified enough, if you have suitable qualification each person has the right to go to that position without anybody's assistance or influence. The increasing population has helped increase bribe takers. What we want is ample opportunities. We have to understand this and create ample opportunities. The Government should take meaningful steps to reduce Bribery and Corruption. Bribery Commission can implement the laws given to us but we alone cannot act . The Bribery Commission and the Government sector have to act together . We have to unite and it is the responsibility of all the Government officers to take meaningful steps with regard to this. For that we cater.