The Presidential Commission to inquire into allegations of large scale fraud and malpractices in SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering Ltd and Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, has acquired more powers to obtain bank details of persons under investigation, their spouses and offspring. Also, details with the Department of Inland Revenue, of these persons who are being questioned will be made available to the Commission with these newly vested powers.
This follows President Maithripala Sirisena extending the term of the Commission up to February 15, 2019 at a meeting held last week. The Commission’s term was to end by December 31, this year.
During the past couple of months, the Commission had questioned over 500 persons. More than 150 people have given evidence before the Commission and more will be brought as witnesses. The Commission had already filed thousands of documents consisting of over 100,000 pages which have paved the way to discover the loss of billions of rupees.
Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, former SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe, former MP Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena and former Civil Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne were among those who gave evidence.
President Maithripala Sirisena met the members of the Commission on December 19, and discussed the progress of the investigations. The President appointed the Commission on February 14, 2018 to investigate large scale frauds and malpractices of SriLankan Airlines, Mihin Lanka and SriLankan Catering from January 1, 2006 to January 31, 2018.
The members of the Commission, include retired Supreme Court Judge Anil Gooneratne (Chairman), Court of Appeal Judge Gamini Rohan Amarasekara, retired High Court Judge Piyasena Ranasinghe, former Deputy Auditor General M. D. Anthony Harold and Director General of Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) W. J. K. Geeganage.