Petitioner accuses CIABoC of condoning corruption

• Says over 85 MPs, including Cabinet Ministers, imported tax-free luxury vehicles
• Requests SC to order CIABoC to commence a probe and also appoint a special bench to investigate tax-free car permit abuse

By Shanika Sriyananda

Accusing the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABoC) with condoning corruption, a petition was filed yesterday requesting the Supreme Court to order the commission to hold a credible and independent investigation into the misuse of duty free car permits by Parliamentarians and Ministers.

Naganada Kodituwakku, a lawyer and public interests litigant who filed a Writ Application (SC/Writs/07/2016) in the Supreme Court, has named the top officials of the CIABoC, including its Chairman, the Deputy Solicitor General, 87 Parliamentarians, including Cabinet Ministers, and the Attorney General, as respondents. In his petition he has requested the Supreme Court to direct the CIABoC to commence legal proceedings under Section 3 of CIABOC Act No. 19 of 1994 against Parliamentarians and Cabinet Ministers who have committed corruption by misusing their tax-free car permits.

Kodituwakku explained that as a lawyer and Sri Lankan citizen, he had lodged the complaint with the court mainly to uphold the law and defend the Constitution, to preserve and protect public property and to combat the misuse and wastage of public property, to respect the rights and freedom of others and to seek the Supreme Court’s intervention to take action against top CIABoC officials who had failed to take action against MPs and Cabinet Ministers who abused duty free car permits and were listed in his first complaint to the commission.

He stated that the Government in 2015 had promised the people that it would adopt a policy based on corrupt-free administration and this was reiterated by President Maithripala Sirisena at the World Anti-Corruption Summit held in London, with him asserting that his Government was committed to combating all forms of corruption.

“But by allowing MPs and Cabinet Ministers to abuse duty free car permits freely, the Government has failed to keep this promise,” he said.

Selling tax-free vehicle permits and misappropriating Government revenue through this organised State-sponsored fraud, Kodituwakku says, falls within the definition of the offence of corruption stated in Section 70 of the Bribery Act.

Kodituwakku, the former Head of the Revenue Task Force of Sri Lanka Customs, has stated that a personal investigation conducted by him had revealed that these permits and vehicles were sold in the open market with advertisements published in the print and electronic media.  

He has informed the Supreme Court that 85 luxury vehicles had been imported through Parliamentarians’ tax-free car permits on 9 December 2016.

He has also submitted the details of 27 MPs who have imported their duty free luxury vehicles and have transferred ownership on the same day that they were granted the permits.

Meanwhile, Kodituwakku went on to request the Supreme Court to appoint a special bench consisting of five or more judges to consider the national importance of this matter.

In his petition, he also added that the Supreme Court offered the only hope for justice against the daylight robbery perpetrated by Parliamentarians through the misuse of their duty free permits.