Although appointed to protect the law, Nanda breaks the law

 Thursday, 29 August 2013 

The history of Maj. Gen. Nanda Mallawarachchi, appointed secretary of the newly-formed Law and Order Ministry, is replete with corruption and fraud, Army sources say.

The only qualification of the retired Maj. Gen. Nanda Mallawarachchi to be given this position is that he is a batch mate of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. When he was the Chief of Staff of the Army, he was a puppet of the Access Group, which had appointed one of its directors, named Gomes, to solely deal with him.

During the war, Mr. Nanda Mallawarachchi, as the head of the Army’s procurement board, had helped Access Group in an unlimited manner to import military hardware. In return, Access Group provided financial support for him to build a huge house in Battaramulla. When an extension was built for that house, the timber needed for the door and window frames were acquired by felling several jak trees in the land owned by the Kotalawala Defence Academy. At that time, the KDA was under him as the Chief of Staff of the Army.

Further, the then Army commander General Sarath Fonseka had ordered an inquiry into the death of an on-duty soldier who had been deployed in the private security service run by Nanda Mallawarachchi. The first owner of this security service is Dambo Jayatileke. Following his demise, his son Kesara Jayatileke ran the security service. Mr. Kesara Jayatileke was a close friend of Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, and like him, he too, died due to alcoholism. The ownership then went to Mr. Kesara Jayatileke’s widow Mrs. Shari Jayatileke. But, its true owner was Mr. Nanda Mallawarachchi.

In an attempt to cover up the inquiry against Mr. Nanda Mallawarachchi ordered by the Army commander, the Defence Secretary posted his batch mate to Indonesia as Sri Lanka’s ambassador. The tenure of a diplomat is usually three years, but owing to his close connection with Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Nanda Mallawarachchi received two extensions. After being in service as the ambassador for six years, he was recommended for yet another extension. He was recently appointed by the president as the secretary to the Law and Order Ministry.