President’s Chief of Staff and Timber Corp. Chairman arrested over Rs 20m bribe

May 3, 2018

The Bribery Commission has arrested the President’s Chief of Staff Dr I.H.K. Mahanama and the Chairman of the State Timber Corporation (STC) P. Dissanayake while accepting a bribe of Rs 20 million. 

According to reports, they were taken into custody by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption while soliciting the bribe at a prominent luxury hotel in Colombo. 

They had allegedly requested a bribe of Rs 100 million from an individual with regards to a deal on the shares of a company and had accepted part of it, Rs 20 million, as an initial payment.  

Dr I.H.K. Mahanama is the former Secretary to the Ministry of Lands who was recently appointed to the influential position of the President’s Chief of Staff.