A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, June 26, 2017
MP Tax-Free Permit Scam: Activist Demands Unqualified Apology From CIABOC Or Face Contempt Charge
Public Interest Rights Activist, Nagananda Kodituwakku demands the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) to tender an unqualified apology to
the Chief Justice for deceiving the Supreme Court by making a
manifestly falsified submission to the Court that the CIABO has already
commenced a credible investigation into the activist’s complaint made in
August 2016 on MP permit abuse.When the matter was taken up for support on 15th June
2017, activist Kodituwakku asserted that the undertaking given to Court
by the CIBOC was a diabolical lie uttered to deceive the Supreme Court
and the people and he made a serious accusation against the CIABOC that
it simply cannot carryout its functions as required by law in cases
where the Executive President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the MPs are
involved.
In the written notice served on CIABOC dated 21st June
2017, after the Supreme Court declined to issue notice the activists
challenges that the undertaking given to Court was simply a ploy to
suppress the day light robbery of public funds committed by the corrupt
MPs and the Cabinet of Ministers who had sold their tax-free car
permits.
In his submission made to the Court on 15th June
2017, he drew the attention of the Court to the letter he was served
with by the former Director General, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe
wherein she informed him that ‘although
the government had incurred a loss due to the abuse of MP tax-free car
permits it had been incurred due to the implementation of the government
policy and therefore the CIABOC would not inquire into the abuse of
tax-free permits issued to MPs’. The Court also heard that the
former Director General, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, deliberately
declined to inquire in to activist’s complaint compelling him to charge
her for ‘Corruption’ and when the government was determined remove her
from the office for different reasons, the corruption charges leveled
against her by the activist Nagananda was used to justify her removal
from office of the Director General of CIABOC.
In
the activist’s hard-hitting letter addressed to the Chairman of the
CIABOC the activist asserts that the undertaking given to Court by the
CIABOC that it has already commenced a credible investigation was
manifestly false and that the former Director General Dilrukshi Dias
Wickramasinghe had earlier at a press briefing had
threatened and intimidated the activist with a criminal prosecution
under Section 21 of the CIABOC Act for making a false allegation.
In
the submission made to the Court the activist submitted to the Court
that since the CIABOC fatally failed to act as required by law on
activist’s complaint, private companies and individuals who are
prohibited to enjoy this tax exemption had imported over 100 Land Cruiser Jeeps on
these MP tax-free permits. The Supreme Court also heard with attention
drawn to the relevant documentary evidence that the total failure of the
CIABOC has opened the floodgates for corrupt MPs and Ministers to abuse
the MP tax-free permits with no respect or regard to the Rule of Law.
And even the Executive President M Sirisena, has taken the advantage and
imported a Land Cruiser Jeep on 14th Oct
2016 claiming himself to be an MP for Polonnaruwa District and the
former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, (now a Kurunegala District MP) too
has imported a similar vehicle on 19th Sep 2016 on a MP tax-free permit, defrauding the payment of fiscal levies of Rs 33,457,500.00 for each vehicle.
In
this backdrop the activist Nagananda claims that this totally
deplorable conduct on the part of the CIABOC has patently proved that
although on paper it is an independent body created by law to combat
bribery and Corruption, in practice it is completely an impotent
statutory body that does
not enjoy any independence at all, particularly when it comes to
matters involving corrupt MPs, Ministers and the Executive President.
Setting
out examples of the dismal failure of the CIABOC and reason for not to
accept its undertaking to conduct a credible investigation, the activist
submitted to the Court that when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was
determined to remove the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, he used
the CIABOC as a tool. On 26th of July 2013, the then Director General of CIABOC Luckshme Jayawickrama, brought three charges before the Chief Magistrate Court,
Colombo (copies enclosed) against the Chief Justice on which the Chief
Justice was unjustly impeached. Once the duty entrusted on the CIABOC
was duly accomplished, the Attorney General later made an application to
the Court on behalf of the CIABOC, seeking permission to withdraw all
the charges. And the Court exonerated the Chief Justice from the unsubstantiated criminal charges leveled against her.
In
the demand sent to the CIABOC the activist also claims that CIABOC was
created by law for a purpose; that is to combat bribery and corruption
against any person who violates the law, guaranteeing the Commissioners
total independence to perform the public office for ‘public good’ with
due respect and regard to the public trust doctrine without violating
the integrity and the public confidence placed in it. However, the
conduct of the extant Commissioners and the Director General of the
CIABOC has proved, beyond any doubt, about their inability to deal with
high profile major fraud inquiries. And that the CIABOC has fatally
failed to realize the expectations of people and blatantly violated the
people’s trust placed in the CIABOC.
The activist Nagananda Kodituwakku charged that the CIABOC had
intentionally deceived the Supreme Court with manifestly falsified
submission that it had already initiated a credible investigation into
activist’s complaint and cautions the CIABOC that unless an unqualified
apology is tendered to the Chief Justice for deceiving the Supreme
Court, it will be charged for contempt, seeking for an order against all
three Commissioners and the Director General for punishment in terms
Article 105 (3) of the Constitution.