MP Wasantha Yapa Bandara was summoned to the Bribery Commission yesterday afternoon (07) to record his statements related to the complaint that Mr Wasantha Yapabandara sent to the Bribery or Corruption Investigation Commission last May. Sri Lanka Latest News
After giving statements, the MP made the following comments to the media.
“Today, the Bribery or Corruption Investigation Commission had issued a summons, especially regarding the Ambuluawa Biodiversity Complex Trust Fund Act, the Bribery or Corruption Investigation Commission had issued a summons. We have shown very clearly that when we examine the audit reports of the two years 2020 and 21 alone, we can see that there have been financial irregularities of more than seventeen crore rupees.
Similarly, we have submitted 13 audit reports from 2010 to 2022 issued by the Auditor General’s Department. These audit reports have revealed huge financial irregularities and many frauds and corruption. The Bribery Commission called us today to investigate the fraud and corruption that has been revealed. There we have made it very clear that we are using 236 acres without handing over immunity to the wildlife department and using them by changing them the way we want. We allege that, on the one hand, the Upper Province Divisional Secretary and Anuradha Jayaratne as the Minister of State for Judiciary and Prisons, in fact, as the founder, are currently working to pave the way for many issues that lead to encroachments on these properties.
Therefore, we allege that especially as the Minister of State for Judiciary and Prisons in this country, he has a responsibility, those who work as the founder of this Ambaluwa Biodiversity Center have a responsibility to pay the government, under the Custodium Act, under the Great Trustee Act, and the same is true of the state. Trust Royalty Payment. It is his responsibility to make such legal payments. Disregarding his legal responsibilities and not making regular payments to the government, as Palitha Range Bandara said in Parliament, the government had spent nine hundred million rupees even in 2009.
Last May, we complained about this money irregularity and fraud by spending public money and not paying the legal payments due to the government holding the immunity of nearly 927 acres of land, which is the main guardian of the public property. We have come today to give another statement related to that complaint. There we strongly say that to end the LTT terrorism in this country, land terrorism will continue to operate. Especially in Kandy, government land is being seriously misused and looted. That is why we say that the country is economically bankrupt, and financially bankrupt, and these political mediators are using the power of the parliament and the executive power to rob state property and loot money in this country. We said that the Bribery or Corruption Commission should act strictly on such financial irregularities and corruption.”
