Too big to be caught

Thursday 28th December, 2023

Venal public officials who collaborate with corrupt politicians to misappropriate public funds and strike corrupt deals at the expense of the state coffers do so at the risk of being thrown to the wolves in case of their rackets being laid bare. When two officials were arrested in the act of accepting a bribe in a hotel car park during the Yahapalana government, everybody knew they were collectors for someone else, who left them in the lurch. The mastermind behind the Treasury bond scams also got off scot-free, leaving the other racketeers to their fate. These lessons have gone unlearnt.

Several serving health officials, and former Health Secretary Janaka Chandragupta are facing legal action over the procurement of a stock of fake immunoglobulin. Amidst calls for his arrest over the scam, which has sparked public outrage, former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has sought to throw a suspect under the bus, so to speak.

Having invited some CID officers to his official residence, on Tuesday, Rambukwella made a statement voluntarily and handed over some documents pertaining to the questionable procurement deal, according to media reports. The police act swiftly on complaints against ordinary persons and descend on them in double quick time, but they waited until Rambukwella extended an invitation to them to visit his house and take down what he dictated! The health sector trade unions have rightly condemned the shameful manner in which the CID is handling complaints against Rambukwella.

The police must be ashamed of goose-stepping to the whims of politicians.

Corruption thrives in this country because the police and the national anti-graft commission baulk at taking action against government politicians who are considered too big to be caught.

The police have chosen to ignore former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and senior President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa’s recent statement before the Maligakanda Magistrate that the mastermind behind the immunoglobulin scam was in the Cabinet. He dared the CID to arrest the minister concerned. He should have named the culprit.

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles has said Rambukwella will be arrested if irrefutable evidence against the latter can be furnished. But the police have arrested thousands of suspects on mere suspicion during the past couple of weeks. When a person allegedly involved in a scam is allowed to remain a Cabinet minister, he or she can suppress evidence and cover his or her tracks. This is why Rambukwella must be made to step down pending investigations into the immunoglobulin scam.

The best way to ascertain whether a politician or a state official has amassed wealth by illegal means is to probe his or her assets. If he or she has not declared them to Inland Revenue, then legal action must be taken against him or her. This is difficult but not impossible. It may be recalled that the Madras High Court, on 21 December 2023, sentenced Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy and his wife to three years of simple imprisonment in one of the disproportionate asset cases. Their 2016 acquittal by a trial court was reversed, according to media reports. This example is worthy of emulation.

When the properties of some SLPP politicians came under arson attacks last year, condemning those savage acts of violence unreservedly, we argued that no compensation should be paid to those who had not declared the damaged properties as assets to Inland Revenue. But the government is reported to have utilised public money to pay compensation for damages to assets including those acquired allegedly with illicit funds. Will the Opposition, which claims to be on the side of the people, care to obtain information about compensation paid to the ruling party MPs for property damages and reveal it to the public?

The police are seizing the assets of drug dealers including those acquired in the names of others. If only the assets of politicians under a cloud were also investigated in this manner.

There is no future for a country in the clutches of a government that has the police on a string and shields the crooks who thrive at the expense of the public, including the sick. Sri Lanka is a case in point.