Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat to close office

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Admitting the system set up by the Government to investigate large-scale corruption by the previous regime was ineffective, Cabinet co-spokesperson Rajitha Seneviratne yesterday said that the term of the Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat (ACCS) would not be extended as the unit had failed to deliver the desired results leading to a case pile-up at both the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the Attorney General’s Department. 

Blaming the ACCA for the delay in keeping the Government’s promise of investigating large-scale corruption, Senaratne said the unit’s failure to identify and forward only large-scale corruption cases to the FCID has led to serious complications. 

“They had no priority. They were not capable of prioritising as they had not decided how to prioritise. They have just forwarded. Even that they have not done systematically,” Senaratne told journalists during a Cabinet briefing held yesterday. 

“What has happened is that from one point it has all got knotted. Every unit blames the unit which has forwarded them the cases. Finally both large-scale corruption cases and small-scale cases are investigated in a mix.”

The ACCS, which was set up in 2015 to channel complaints of large-scale corruption to the FCID, was given an extension of six months last November. The Cabinet debated extending the term again for two weeks before deciding against it this week. The Secretariat was set up to prepare the basic documents needed by the FCID for the formal investigation process, Senaratne highlighted.

“But they did not differentiate. They sent all complaints to the FCID. When the FCID was asked as to why they were investigating small issues like taking a car from one ministry to the other, those officers say that they cannot differentiate when ACCS sent,” he claimed. 

“There is a serious doubt over the service rendered by this organisation compared to the money spent.”

Although the ACCS was allocated a sum of Rs. 12.26 million each year, the unit has spent Rs. 26 million in 2015 and another Rs. 26 million in 2016 and another Rs. 12 million during the first six months of this year, totalling nearly Rs. 65 million. 

Although the unit is to wind up by the end of July, 14 other agencies are functioning to investigate corruption-related cases, Senaratne insisted.