Action against BC

30 July 2015 02:05 am

The Cabinet decided to initiate investigations into the failure on the part of the Commissioners of the Bribery Commission to dispense with complaints lodged with it during the last four years, a minister said yesterday.

Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told the Daily Mirror the Cabinet took the decision yesterday after a considering a proposal by him.

Rajapakshe, a Colombo district candidate of the United National Party (UNP), noted as many as 1,900 complaints had been lodged with the Commission during the last four years, but only a handful of cases had been looked into.

The Minister said two commissioners had virtually been sitting on the complaints, particularly against the politicians.

“We will initiate inquiries against these two commissioners. Only after we appointed a new Director General, we were able to start investigations and to file action. In fact, there are bribery charges against these two commissioners. But, no investigation has been done,” he said.

“We want to build public confidence in the system in dealing with bribery and corruption,” he said.

The UNP-led alliance has pledged to enact strong anti-corruption laws in case it is elected to office. It has been announced in the manifesto. (Kelum Bandara)