• Champika, Rajitha, Ravi K breathe fire over Marapana’s remarks
• President, PM deny associations with Avant Garde Chairman, promise to issue formal denials
• Wijedasa, Marapana under fire at Cabinet meeting; hot exchange lasts 30 minutes
• Marapana explains Avant Garde case will be hard to prove
• Junior ministers expected to raise the issue again at UNP ministers meet today

By Dharisha Bastians

Heated exchanges took place during the weekly cabinet briefing yesterday, with senior Government ministers taking umbrage at Law and Order Minister Thilak Marapana’s staunch defence of Avant Garde, the controversial maritime security firm embroiled in a Defence Ministry corruption case.

 Daily FT learns that Urban Development Minister Champika Ranawaka kick-started the fracas, by demanding whether the remarks made by Minister Marapana in Parliament on Wednesday was an official Government position on the Avant Garde corruption scandal.

Highly placed sources said Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne then pitched in, charging that a certain UNP Minister had brought Avant Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi to meet President Maithripala Sirisena.

 Senaratne charged that this meeting had given the head of the controversial company the idea that he would not be held accountable for his actions, the sources said. An angry Minister Senaratne also claimed that there were several members of the Cabinet who were making ‘deals’ on the side and derailing the corruption investigations and prosecutions.

 Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake also chimed into the heated debate, saying that it was despicable that the same cronies of the Rajapaksa administration, who had actively sought to derail the 8 January campaign, were now being permitted to cozy up to the new administration.

 The Ministers insisted that Marapana could not be in charge of the Avant Garde case, when he had provided legal services to the company before he was appointed a minister in the UNF Government.

 President Sirisena who was chairing the Cabinet meeting told his ministers that Senadhipathi was being offered no protection from his office. President Sirisena added that he would be shortly making a statement to the press denying these allegations.

 Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who was also attending the Cabinet meeting denied having any association with the Avant Garde chairman. “I don’t know him at all,” the Premier told his ministers. Wickremesinghe said his office would also ensure this perception was corrected, sources told Daily FT.

 

Daily FT learns that the heated exchange regarding Minister Marapana’s defence of Avant Garde in Parliament on Wednesday continued for about 30 minutes during the Cabinet meeting. Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakse, who has also been criticized for his comments on the issue in Parliament on Wednesday, was also under some fire during the meeting, the sources said.  Minister Rajapakse also defended the private security firm, but denied accusations that either the Attorney General’s department had taken bribes to cover-up the scandal.

 

Minister Marapana, who was in attendance, tried to explain his remarks in the House, saying that while there were many accusations leveled against the Avant Garde company, these charges were incredibly difficult to prove.

 

In Parliament on Wednesday, Minister Marapana said Avant Garde had been trying to help the Defence Ministry to locate lost weapons, and accused the Police Department of trying to “score a point” after the fall of the last Government, with its raid and investigation of the Avant Garde floating armoury docked in Galle. The Minister also admitted to having provided legal advice to Senadhipathi, during his speech in Parliament. He then proceeded to launch a stoic defence of the private security firm, to the shock and horror of many of his own party MPs.

 

The issue and Marapana’s conduct is expected to be raised again at the UNP ministers meeting scheduled for today, with more fireworks expected then, sources said. Several junior UNP ministers and deputy ministers are furious about the positions taken by Ministers Marapana and Rajapakse. Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake told Parliament that Government members had been bribed to cover-up the case, while Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera said the IGP and the Attorney General should be summoned to Parliament to explain their conduct in the Avant Garde case.