Last day to lodge complaints with PRECIFAC 24 March

Saturday, 19 March 2016 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shanika Sriyananda

The President-appointed anti-corruption commission will conclude receiving complaints on large-scale fraud and corruption during the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa Government from 24 March.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC) has received over 1,500 complaints on fraud and corruption in State institutions so far.

“Since we have been given an extension till 3 March 2017, we are fully geared to complete investigations into these cases. Of the total, we plan to complete 300 cases on fraud and corruption soon,” PRECIFAC Secretary H.W. Gunadasa told the Daily FT.

He said the public could lodge their complaints on or before 24 March on large-scale fraud and misuse of power and public money in State institutions.

The PRECIFAC, which handles over 50 cases of large-scale fraud and corruption, has already submitted its third interim report and the final report of misusing of State funds on the alleged Negombo Lagoon development project to the President.

The commission has decided to finalise the ongoing investigations into the financial irregularities which occurred at Independent Television Network during the presidential elections 2015 and the Coconut Cultivation Board during the same regime soon.

Asked why the commission was operating at snail’s pace in bring the culprits to book, he said that once the PRECIFAC police investigators conclude their investigations, the five member-team of commissioners would handle comprehensive investigations into each case to maintain the credibility of the commission’s decisions to name the actual wrongdoers.

“We do not want to be hurry in our final investigations to name the culprits. We will crosscheck all the possibilities to find the real culprits,” Gunadasa said.

Meanwhile, PRECIFAC sources said that former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa would testify again on 24 March over the alleged misuse of State funds and use of Rakna Araksha Lanka Ltd. (RALL) employees at the 2015 presidential election campaign.

He will be questioned before the PRECIFAC Commissioners – High Court Judges Padman Surasena, Amendra Seneviratna, Vikum Kaluarachchi and Gihan Kulatunga and former Auditor General B.A. Premathilake – at the BMICH.

“The commission is hopefully of concluding its questioning on the RALL issue on 24 March,” he said.