{"id":166816,"date":"2016-08-25T11:21:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T05:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=166816"},"modified":"2016-08-31T18:37:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T13:07:59","slug":"australian-company-bribe-scandal-no-knowledge-of-the-incident-says-sirisena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/australian-company-bribe-scandal-no-knowledge-of-the-incident-says-sirisena\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Company Bribe Scandal: &#8220;No Knowledge Of The Incident&#8221; Says Sirisena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amidst serious allegations that incumbent President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Maithripala+Sirisena&amp;x=11&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> was involved in a bribery scandal when he was a cabinet minister, Sirisena in a statement to\u00a0<em>The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> has said, &#8220;no knowledge of the incident&#8221; and requested further details to &#8220;ascertain the involvement of any of his office staff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Maithripala2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-149065\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Maithripala2.jpg\" alt=\"Maithripala\" width=\"639\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Maithripala2.jpg 639w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Maithripala2-300x217.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\" \/><\/a>Sirisena has also said he would co-operate &#8220;in any investigation&#8221; in Australia and &#8220;will also instruct the relevant local authorities to investigate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr Sirisena did not respond to detailed questions.&#8221; the Newspaper said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-in-soup-over-bribe-scandal-involving-australian-company\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Sydney Morning Herald reported<\/span><\/a> that 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<p>Company emails also reveal Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and his adviser allegedly demanded political \u2018donation\u2019 to be paid by SMEC when Mr. Sirisena was a cabinet minister.\u201d 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 \u2018donation\u2019 Sirisena was to approve the awarding of the dam contract to SMEC, which was worth US $ 1.8 million.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-in-soup-over-bribe-scandal-involving-australian-company\/\">Sirisena In Soup Over Bribe Scandal Involving Australian Company<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":149065,"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-166816","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 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Australian Company Bribe Scandal: &quot;No Knowledge Of The Incident&quot; 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