{"id":166794,"date":"2016-08-24T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=166794"},"modified":"2016-08-30T16:23:30","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T10:53:30","slug":"sirisena-in-soup-over-bribe-scandal-involving-australian-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-in-soup-over-bribe-scandal-involving-australian-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Sirisena In Soup Over Bribe Scandal Involving Australian Company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s Good Governance Champion, President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maithripala+Sirisena&amp;x=7&amp;y=8\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> is embroiled in an alleged bribery scandal amounting to millions of dollars involving an Australian Company\u00a0at the time he was a cabinet minister.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/business\/australian-companies-linked-to-bribe-scandals-in-sri-lanka-and-congo-20160823-gqyzlp.html\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sydney Morning Herald<\/span><\/a>, the Australian Federal Police is currently carrying out investigations involving the iconic Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC) where it is reported that the company\u2019s overseas staff allegedly bribed officials to secure a US $ 2.3 million aid funded sewerage project in Sri Lanka in 2011.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_134787\" style=\"width: 614px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Maithri-photo-credit-Newsfirstlk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134787\" class=\" wp-image-134787\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Maithri-photo-credit-Newsfirstlk.jpg\" alt=\"Sirisena\" width=\"604\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Maithri-photo-credit-Newsfirstlk.jpg 594w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Maithri-photo-credit-Newsfirstlk-300x216.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-134787\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sirisena<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Company emails also reveal Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and his adviser allegedly demanded political &#8216;donation&#8217; to be paid by SMEC when Mr. Sirisena was a cabinet minister.&#8221; the Newspaper said.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the investigations, the emails show a plot to skim the money off a World Bank-funded dam project in 2009. According to the Newspaper, if the company had made the &#8216;donation&#8217; Sirisena was to approve the awarding of the dam contract to SMEC, which was worth US $ 1.8 million.<\/p>\n<p>SMEC&#8217;s Sri Lankan manager, who was recently sacked, wrote in emails to two Australian colleagues that he wanted to &#8220;inform the minister\/coordinating secretary&#8221; of the size of an alleged kickback to be paid and that he needed to &#8220;prioritise&#8221; certain payments to unnamed parties &#8220;since the signing of the contract would depend&#8221; on it, the Sydney Morning Herald said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":134787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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