By Chamodi Gunawardana

Joint Opposition members yesterday lodged a complaint against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption outlining three separate incidents of corruption including allegations of misappropriating State funds. 

This comes a week after the Joint Opposition lodged a complaint at the Bribery Commission against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage claimed to be first on the list of the ‘Top ten corrupt officials of the Yahapalana Government’. 

“The top ten corrupt officials of the Yahapalana Government will be revealed each week as we lodge the complaints. The top person on the list is the Prime Minister and we lodged a complaint against him last week,” Aluthgamage told Daily FT. 

The complaint against Karunanayake alleges malpractice in releasing luxury vehicles from Customs duty. According to the Joint Opposition, Karunanayake’s decision to release 800 Toyota Land Cruiser Prados and 700 Mercedes Benzes from Customs has cost the State Rs. 10 billion. 

“Karunanayake has released those vehicles paying only Rs. 1.6 million in custom charges per vehicle when Rs. 8 million worth of tax should have been charged per vehicle,” he said.

Complainant MP Ramesh Pathirana stated that on a request made by his daughter O.W. Karunanayake, the Minister has released a warehouse belonging to Customs to a private cargo company owned by his family on a private security guarantee, deviating from the standard practice of obtaining a bank guarantee. The warehouse is usually not given to private parties, Pathirana claimed. 

In the third allegation levelled against Karunanayake, Pathirana stated that the Minister had abused the ministry’s funds to pay for accommodation for his Singaporean business partner during his stay in the country. 

Last week the Joint Opposition lodged a complaint against Prime Minister Wickremesinghe over financial misappropriation worth Rs. 15 billion in connection with the Central Bank bond scam. 

A special committee within the Joint Opposition led by Aluthgamage will investigate corruption allegations against different members of the Government to draw up their list of the top ten corrupt members of the Yahapalana Government. 

Aluthgamage said until then the Joint Opposition was unable to reveal the exact list of alleged corrupt members of the Government. Parliamentarians Pathirana, Namal Rajapaksa, Vidura Wickramanayaka, Jayantha Samaraweera, Kanchana Wijesekara, Kanaka Herath, Shehan Semasinghe and Sisira Jayakody were the other members on the committee.

JO to inform IMF, World Bank and ADB about bond scam

The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday claimed that they will inform all international monetary bodies of the controversial bond scam.

JO member and Sri Lanka Podu Jana Permuna Chairman Prof. G. L. Peiris claimed they will send copies of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) report, the Attorney General’s report and the Central Bank internal report to all foreign monetary institutions including the International Monetary Board (IMF), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to highlight the Government’s failure to manage the country’s economy.

“The Government is seeking loans and aid from those institutions, but they have misused the funds of Treasury bonds staging a high profile fraud inside the Central Bank. Therefore those bodies must be made aware of how their funds are being utilised by the Sri Lankan Government,” he said.

Prof. Peiris further stated that the Government is continuously failing to take necessary action to strengthen the country’s monetary policy. (CG)