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| Friday, 25 June 2004 |
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| Govt to take legal action against Ravi K by Manjula Fernando The Government in keeping with its election pledge to weed out bribery and corruption from the body politics and to bring the culprits to book, has decided to take legal action against former Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake. Cabinet spokesman and Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the police are investigating how Rs.25.5 million was released out of public funds on Karunanayake's instructions to prevent a building belonging to former UNP Minister A.R.M. Abdul Cader from being confiscated by the Hatton National Bank. Minister Samaraweera said: "The main accusation against the UNF was that they engaged in corruption and malpractices and that the ministers were playing out public funds on a mass scale. This was the principal reason behind their defeat at the April General election." The Minister said when the police went to arrest Karunanayake on Wednesday evening following investigations into the charges against him, former Ministers Prof. G.L. Peiris and S.B. Dissanayake obstructed the policemen, demanding that they produce an arrest warrant. "But what they should have known is that certain offenses like murder and those under the Public Property Act does not need a warrant for arrest." The Minister said that the police was contemplating action against these two MPs for obstructing the police from executing their job. Referring to documents concerning the deal, the minister said the seven storeyed building on Vauxhall Street, owned by the former Minister Cader was to be acquired on rent for the Consumer Protection Authority that was not even in existence at the time. "According to these documents Ravi Karunanayake has instructed his Ministry Secretary to pay Rs.1.4 million a month as rent in addition to municipal taxes. A Certificate of Conformity that is mandatory when acquiring property for the Government, was also not called and the agreement was signed prior to the Government Valuer's observations. The GV in his report, which came two months later has stated the owner should be paid only Rs.1 million provided that he met general maintenance expenses and municipal taxes. "We have documentary proof to show the rent was credited to the personal account of the former UNP Minister at a private bank in Kandy," Samaraweera said. The Minister said the two passports of former Minister Karunanayake and the former secretary Harsha Wickremasinghe has been impounded. |
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