Bribery Commission needs more muscle - Director

RASIKA SOMARATHNA

The investigation arm of the Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption needs more muscle to conduct investigations speedily and efficiently, Director of the Unit Neville Guruge said yesterday.

Lamenting the lack of manpower and professional expertise in the Unit, Guruge said the present working strength of around 100 officers, was not sufficient with a single officer having to carry the burden of perusing 30-40 files.

Guruge pointed out the lack of professionals was hampering investigations and the fact that the team consisted mainly from a select band of police officers might create a wrong impression regarding the integrity of investigations.

Guruge who is a high ranking police official said he had come under a barrage of questioning at a recent world forum regarding his credentials for holding such a post because he was the only policeman at the event to hold such a position.

"Even though we have provided a lot of training to the officers we still need professional expertise in specific areas," Guruge said and added that even with limited resources they were giving prominence to high profile cases such as the complain regarding the COPE report.

Director General for Prevention of Bribery and Corruption Piyasena Ranasinghe pointed out the need to amend the Bribery and Corruption Act and said they had already forwarded certain recommendations to the authorities.

He added that in comparison to last year (4,267 cases) the number of complaints had gone down in 2007 (2,867 cases) but the proportion of cases referred to the Investigation Unit had gone up which he attributed to better understanding by the public regarding commission's role.

This trend showed regarding complaints about corruption which had gone up significantly from last year's figure of 401 to 549 so far this year.

He said that only chosen cases were forwarded to the Investigation Unit. When it comes to convictions, police officers headed the list numbering 40 and 24 for 2006 and this year, with Grama Niladharis taking second spot with 11 and nine convictions.

Guruge who is a senior police officer himself, said these figures do not necessarily mean that the Police Department was the most corrupt Government institution and added that there was a reluctance on the part of the public to make complaints regarding bigger issues in other institutions.

Director General Piyasena Ranasinghe added that it was the publics alienable right to oppose bribery and corruption and as such the everybody should join the battle to eradicate the scourge of corruption to make the country a better place.