{"id":166896,"date":"2016-08-27T17:04:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T11:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=166896"},"modified":"2016-08-27T17:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T11:34:25","slug":"australian-bribery-scandal-sirisena-requests-for-details-of-culprit-from-australian-scribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/australian-bribery-scandal-sirisena-requests-for-details-of-culprit-from-australian-scribe\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Bribery Scandal: Sirisena Requests For Details Of Culprit From Australian Scribe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s office has written to award winning Australian journalist Nick McKenzie requesting for information on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-in-soup-over-bribe-scandal-involving-australian-company\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the recent allegations that Sirisena and his advisor solicited a bribe<\/span><\/a> when Sirisena was a cabinet Minister. The story was carried under the bylines of MxKenzie, Emmanuel Freudenthal, Michael Bachelard and Richard Baker.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_147532\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Maithripala-Sirisena-13-July-15-Prz-media-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-147532\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-147532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Maithripala-Sirisena-13-July-15-Prz-media--150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Maithripala Sirisena\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Maithripala-Sirisena-13-July-15-Prz-media--150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Maithripala-Sirisena-13-July-15-Prz-media--50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-147532\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maithripala Sirisena<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In a letter to McKenzie, the secretariat had requested for the name of the person allegedly involved, the mode of communication, the exact date of the incident and proof if any of such communication where the report said that Sirisena and his advisor had requested for a &#8216;donation&#8217; if they were to approve a contract.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after the story broke, Sirisena in a statement said that he had &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/australian-company-bribe-scandal-no-knowledge-of-the-incident-says-sirisena\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">no knowledge of the incident<\/span><\/a>.&#8217; The Sydney Morning Herald reported 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>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><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/australian-company-bribe-scandal-no-knowledge-of-the-incident-says-sirisena\/\">Australian Company Bribe Scandal: \u201cNo Knowledge Of The Incident\u201d Says Sirisena<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><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><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":147532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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