Office Assistant in bribery net

Sandasen Marasinghe

KURUNEGALA: An office assistant of the Kurunegala Regional Valuation Office has been charged with accepting a Rs. 17,000 bribe to draft a reduced valuation estimate in respect of a plot of land.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption filed the case against office assistant K.M. Jayasinghe of Maspotha for demanding and accepting the inducement on July 12 last year.

Jayasinghe had demanded the inducement from M.N.U. Sumanaratne to support him to obtain a valuation report on a plot of land in the Kantale town belonging to his wife with a reduced estimation.

Sumanaratne in his statement to the bribery Commission stated that his wife G.K. Sriyani Chandralatha owned a plot of crown land of 18 perchs on lease at 189, Mahaweediya, Kantale. She leased out the two storey building on that plot to a private bank. The Government was taking steps to grant such plots of lands with permanent deeds to those who had leased them out.

Sumanaratne said that a person introduced himself as valuation officer of Kurunegala Branch of Valuation Department visited the plot of land for the estimation. Later Jayasinghe demanded the bribe to include a reduced estimation in the valuation report.

Sumanaratne stated that on a later date both valuation officer and Jayasinghe explained to him that Chandralatha (his wife) had to pay an annual instalment of 4 percent of the estimation for 30 years before they receive the permanent deed.

They told Sumanaratne that they could draw up the estimation in a way so that the yearly instalment could be varied from Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 100,000. When he realised they were demanding bribe he made a complaint before the Bribery Commission.