An amendment to the Bribery Act of 1954 had rendered the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) toothless and unable to act on its own, former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva said yesterday at the launch of an anti-corruption website (www.anticorruptsl.com) in Colombo. Now, the Commission had to wait till a formal complaint was made to take action, he said.
A person who invoked the jurisdiction of the CIABOC ran the risk of being sentenced to jail for not less than ten years if a case against someone, on the basis of his complaint, was not proved, owing to the amendment, the former CJ said. As a result, he asserted, people were wary of moving the CIABOC unlike in the past. The Commission received hardly any complaints and people like police constables, grama niladharis get caught while crooks who took huge bribes amounting to millions of rupees went scot free, he said.
The introduction of the Open Economy in 1977 had led to spread of corruption and the late President J. R. Jayewardene had set a bad precedent by pardoning those found guilty of bribery and corruption by Courts, the former CJ said.
A Senior state bank official found guilty of bribery and sent to prison had been given a presidential pardon by the then President giving him a Presidential Pardon, former Chief Justice Silva said adding that before the economy was opened, bribery, corruption, rape etc had been seldom heard of. He praised Justice Minister in Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Cabinet Felix Dias Bandaranaike for carrying out the anti-bribery laws to the letter.
The late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike had, he said, done her utmost to root out corruption and she had special courts set up to hear bribery cases.
The former Chief Justice lashed out at the present government for building a port in Hambantota claiming that the site was not suitable for such a project which he said did not conform to the international Maritime Organisation specifications. The government had just ‘dug a hole and built a harbour’, he smiled.
Lloyds would not insure a port which was less than 35 m deep and the depth of Hambantota port was only 20 m. Only Ariyaseela Wickramanayake’s vessels could enter that port, the former CJ said. With the money being spent on blasting a massive rock at the port, so many schools could be built, he said.
The late Minister M. H. M. Ashraff had built a port in Oluvil, where no vessels could enter and only its managers were there, the former CJ said claiming that it was the future generations that will have to pay back the loans the present government was obtaining.