President defends FCID even though SLFP ministers call for its disbanding

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, February 07, 2016

• Green light for arrests in major cases; PM stresses need for collective responsibility within the Cabinet
• More stunning revelations about Yoshitha’s CSN operations; Rajapaksa loyalists have no option but to appeal to deities
• Ranil tells UNP members to focus on local polls but elections unlikely this year due to constitutional issues

Last Saturday’s arrest of Lieutenant Yoshitha, second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, continues to reverberate in many quarters. One such instance is the weekly ministerial meeting on Wednesday. Ministers representing the United National Party (UNP) were livid that one of their Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) colleagues had, wanted the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), which made the arrest, disbanded.

Rajapaksa loyalists breaking coconuts, some alleged to be robbed, at the Seenigama Devalaya in Hikkaduwa yesterday. Pic by Gamini Mahadura

The previous day (Tuesday), Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told a media briefing at the Government Information Department what he termed was the SLFP’s standpoint on the arrest. Demanding that the FCID should be disbanded, he declared that investigations against Lt. Yoshitha should be “conducted under the normal laws of the country.” He said there was a Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and a Police that could probe corrupt activity or other malpractice. He asserted that there was no need for a special police unit.

That Minister de Silva’s remarks were made from a Government establishment responsible for dissemination of official Government information, was indeed a serious matter. He was making it clear, officially that is, that the SLFP, the co-partner in the Government, was not in favour of the FCID. Hence, the SLFPers were bringing into question the investigations conducted by the FCID. His views were shared by most SLFP ministers who claim that as prominent party members, the bad fallout in their electorates were on them and their party supporters. Rightly or otherwise, they contend that those investigated were only from within their own ranks and none from the UNP. Hence the accusation that the probes are weakening the SLFP and consolidating the UNP.

That de Silva raised issue publicly instead of taking up matters with President Maithripala Sirisena was to irk UNP ministers. After all, it was Sirisena who chaired a ministerial meeting that decided on February 12 last year to set up the FCID to “investigate matters relating to serious financial crimes, public funds and property.” The same meeting decided on an Anti-Corruption Committee whose term has now been extended till June 30 this year. This Committee channels public complaints to relevant state investigative agencies. This came on a recommendation by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. At the apex of these organisations, President Sirisena chairs an executive council that oversees the workings of the two mechanisms. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake pulled out of this Council on the grounds that no action was being taken on the probes. However, he strongly defended the FCID in Parliament last week.

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