Political

President rejects nomination of narco-mafia ex-IGP

Once again the Bribery Commission is not functioning. This is due to the fact that the Chairman of the Commission, retired Supreme Court Judge Ananda Coomaraswamy, has retired making the Institution inoperative.

The nominee of the Constitution Council, a former IGP who retired under a criminal cloud has been rejected by the President as he is found to have had connections with the narcotics mafia, some of whom are facing cases against them.

Meanwhile, Bribery Commission sources point out that although there were investigation units at the Commission they were unable to proceed with their investigation, including those made against a large number of former UNP ministers.

They are of the view that the UNP was trying to block these investigations using the ex IGP as a red herring.

The same source alleges that the nomination of the former IGP with a proven connection to the country's leading narcotic dealers was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Government's fight against corruption.

There was an outcry during the UNP regime that the Bribery Commission was no longer existing but the people who were interested in eliminating bribery and corruption are shocked about the present silence of the UNP to reactivate the Commission.

The Constitutional Council has the power to select the Commissioners. But the nominees have to be finally approved by the President. Three names had been forwarded by the CC, but the President had found one of the names unacceptable.

According to informed sources, the UNP had deliberately sponsored the former blackballed IGP for sabotaging the Commission as the investigators were in the midst of investigating charges of bribery and corruption against the 14 former ministers.

They said that on the one hand the UNP was trying to kill the Commission to prevent any investigation against its members and on the other hand, wanted to blame the President for this situation.

The UNF Government when its Prime Minister was Ranil Wickremesinghe effectively rendered the Bribery Commission inoperative for 17 months.

Finally, after the defeat of the UNF regime and coming into power of the UPFA Government in April 2004, President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed former Appeal Court Judge, K Vignaraja as a Commissioner making the Commission functional.

Chairman S. Ananda Coomaraswamy and K Vignaraja served in the Commission till December 14, 2004. The present situation where the Commission has been rendered non- functional once again was that the Constitutional Council has proposed three names to the President, one of them was a former IGP who retired from the Police under a cloud of allegations of connections to the narcotics mafia responsible for large scale drug addiction particularly among the youth in this country and the kingpin is now being charged in several heroin trafficking cases against him.