World Bank team to probe fraudulent deals in SL
A special team from the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World
Bank in Sri Lanka to help the government probe mega scale financial
frauds and locate the assets stashed away in foreign countries,
allegedly by politicians and officials of the former government. The
StAR team arrived in the island on Wednesday on a government invitation.
The StAR is a partnership between the World Bank Group and the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that supports international
efforts to end safe havens for corrupt funds. StAR works with developing
countries and financial centres to prevent the laundering of the
proceeds of corruption and to facilitate more systematic and timely
return of stolen assets.
Deputy Minister of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs, Child Youth and
Cultural Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday confirmed that the StAR
team is in the country.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera together with anti corruption
expert and senior lawyer J.C. Weliamuna during their recent visit to
United States met officials of the World Bank's StAR Unit in the US
capital to obtain their assistance with the investigations to hunt for
plundered wealth allegedly by certain politicians of the former regime,
which are believed to be invested or stashed away in foreign countries.
“We will go after this plundered wealth and the foreign assets bought
with the aid of such money. Billions have been stolen and taken out of
the country. We are taking steps to bring them back,” Dr. de Silva said.
The Deputy Minister admitted that finding some of the stolen wealth
may take years but stressed that the government was determined to expose
those responsible and recover the plundered wealth hidden away in
foreign nations.
In addition to StAR the government has also sought help from other
global financial institutions and several foreign government's to track
down the hidden assets.
The government has sought the services of the Financial Intelligence
Unit of the Reserve Bank India (RBI), the IMF and several foreign
governments in this regard.
The new government has also set up an Anti-Corruption Secretariat
which will investigate into large scale corruption and malpractices of
the previous government.
The Secretariat, will deal with the large scale corruption and
malpractices alleged to have taken place during the previous government
and take legal action against such actions. A Financial Crimes
Investigation Division under the supervision of the IGP to investigate
into large scale financial transactions including money laundering
activities has also been established.
The Bribery and Corruption Commission too is investigating in to a
large number of related complaints at present.
According to a recent report appearing in some local and foreign
media, the government estimates around Rs. 700 billion ($5.31 billion)
were taken out of the country in 2013 alone. |