PRECIFAC to hand over final reports to President today

Tuesday, 2 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shanika Sriyananda

Wrapping up all its probes, the five-member Presidential anti-corruption commission will hand over its final overall report on large-scale corruption, fraud, and abuse of power and State funds to President Maithripala Sirisena today.

It will also hand over 17 final investigation reports on large-scale corruption, fraud, and abuse of power and State funds to the President at the President’s Secretariat at 4 p.m. today.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption, and Abuse of Power (PRECIFAC), which ended its investigations in November last year, had already submitted 17 final reports to the President.

PRECIFAC Secretary H.W. Gunadasa said that the Commission had investigated 34 major cases of large-scale fraud and corruption after probing into 415 allegations out of 1,600 petitions.

He told Daily FT that PRECIFAC’s final overall report would recommend how to prevent and tackle large-scale fraud and corruption in the future.

The alleged fraud at ITN during the last presidential election campaign of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the alleged illegal deployment of Rakna Lanka employees for the 2015 presidential polls, the alleged sale of expired dynamite by the Ministry of Defence, and alleged financial irregularities at SriLankan Airlines and SriLankan Airlines Catering were among the final reports handed over to the President to recommend legal action against the culprits.

Several high-profile politicians of the previous Government, including former President Rajapaksa, some Cabinet Ministers and key defence officials including former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had testified before its five-member panel of commissioners at the public hearings held at the BMICH.

The 18 final reports – 17 final reports on large-scale corruption, fraud, and abuse of power and State funds and the final overall report of PRECIFAC – will be handed over to President Sirisena by High Court Judges Padman Surasena, Piyasena Ranasinghe and Gihan Kulatunga as well as former Auditor General B.A. Premathilake and PRECIFAC Secretary Gunadasa.