Where did the Bribery & Corruption Commission Go Wrong?
Responding to the removal of the Bribery Commission’s Director General Piyasena Ranasinghe, Ivan argues the Commission was already a failed institution. He cites its handling of Mangala Samaraweera’s credit cards and the Public Trustee inquiry, retired judges as commissioners, the lack of any oversight, and the career of Rienzie Arsakularatne, and proposes a body to inspect the Commission itself.
අල්ලස් දූෂණ, දේශපාලනය හා යුක්තිය පසිඳලීම
At a Transparency International seminar Ivan asked Bribery Commission chairman S. Ananda Coomaraswamy why the commission had cleared Mangala Samaraweera over a Rs. 500,000 credit card from a state body. He contrasts the commission with former commissioner Neelum Gamage, who resisted pressure from President Wijetunga over Wack Silva, and argues that politicians enriched by corruption will never accept an independent commission. A second section criticises the legal community’s belated alarm at Mark Fernando’s early retirement and describes the decay of the judiciary under Sarath N. Silva.
බහිරවයාට ගිය මහා භාරකාර දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව
Ivan explains how the Public Trustee’s Department holds charitable trusts and bequests worth hundreds of millions, then documents spending by the new Public Trustee, N.S.A.S. Seneviratne, whose past he had warned about: a pirith ceremony and air-conditioning from the D.B. Jayatilaka fund, a car bought from the Samarakoon dowry trust, repairs to others’ vehicles, gifts to his children’s school and temples, costly work at Richmond Castle and an unreturned G.L. Peiris fund transfer.