Fraudsters attempt to flee the country – Civil organizations take legal action

Trade unions and civil organization are taking measures to obtain a writ to get senior officials including the Director Board of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) who have been accused of serious financial frauds that have been committed in the Authority.

The Secretary of the legal section of ‘Intellectuals for Human Rights’ (IHR) Attorney at Law Chaminda Gunasekera said FCID has already completed investigations and the Attorney General has instructed to arrest the perpetrators and take legal action against them. However, arrest of the corrupt officials and taking them before a court has been deterred due to a higher political intervention states Mr. Gunasekera and added that IHR together with Voice Against Corruption (VAC), and trade unions of Accountants’ Unions, Auditor General’s Department and Teachers would jointly clamour for legal action against the perpetrators.

Former Director General of the SLTDA D.S. Jayaweera, who is an accused connected with the fraud has requested permission from Court to go abroad and he plans to leave the country on the 23rd. The police has not informed Court that Attorney General had instructed the perpetrators to be arrested and it is suspected that D.S. Jayaweera is getting support from a very senior politician of the government to flee the country said Mr. Gunasekera.

Complaints regarding serious financial frauds that had been committed in SLTDA have been received and already investigation of 2 of them has been completed. The completed investigations have confirmed that public money has been misused. The investigations have confirmed that the Board of Directors had used the funds belonging to the Authority for Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election campaign in January, 2015.