{"id":192770,"date":"2018-08-14T12:44:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T07:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=192770"},"modified":"2018-08-14T23:43:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T18:13:18","slug":"chandrika-confesses-yahapalana-govt-is-corrupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/chandrika-confesses-yahapalana-govt-is-corrupt\/","title":{"rendered":"Chandrika Confesses \u2018Yahap\u0101lana Govt Is Corrupt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Chandrika+Kumaratunga\">Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/a> in an interview with the <em>Sunday Observer<\/em> claims that \u2018extreme corruption reigns all across the country [and] across all segments of the population\u2013 the public service, the political authorities, and now it has seeped right down to the bottom.\u2019<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_139289\" style=\"width: 909px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Chandrika.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-139289\" class=\" wp-image-139289\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Chandrika.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"899\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Chandrika.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Chandrika-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Chandrika-800x533.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 899px) 100vw, 899px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-139289\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chandrika<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In responses liberally laced with her usual anti-Rajapaka rhetoric Kumaratunga laments that despite all her efforts to rid the country of corruption, beginning with the defeat of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rajapaksa+regime\">Rajapaksa regime<\/a>, she has not even succeeded in righting the wrongs pertaining to a project \u2018concerning [her] village\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The project referred to was one to supply water from the Basnagoda-Attanagalu Oya to three electorates and to parts of two other electorates in the Gampaha District. Kumaratunga cites inflated estimates of costs and numerous irregularities which have been confirmed by the Attorney General\u2019s Department, and states that her complaints to the high-ups of the present Yahapalana Government have fallen on deaf years.<\/p>\n<p>Kumaratunga boasts that she has \u2018fought for transparency and honesty in this country at great cost\u2019 and that she believed she could combat corruption in at least one project since she has \u2018a good knowledge of how government works and I thought that with [her] commitment to honesty, the knowledge and acumen that [she has],\u2019 this would be possible. She now admits that it appears to be an impossible task.<\/p>\n<p>Kumaratunga&#8217;s track record when in power is also fraught with multiple misdeeds.\u00a0In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that Kumaratunga had abused her executive powers to facilitate a corrupt deal and was instrumental in illegally transferring state lands meant for a \u2018public purpose\u2019 to a private golf course \u2014 now known as Waters Edge.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In a landmark judgment, Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shiranee+Tilakawardane\">Shiranee Tilakawardane<\/a> said Kumaratunga had failed to function in a manner consistent with the expectations of a public officer, much less an Executive President, and in doing so, had completely betrayed the position of trust bestowed upon her by the Constitution and by the people of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Kumaratunga was fined Rs. 3 million while the fifth respondent and Kumaratunga family friend Ronnie Peiris, who is said to have made a Rs. 57 million profit in the corrupt deal, was ordered to pay Rs. 2 million rupees.<\/p>\n<p>In another development on corruption, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Vasudeva+Nanayakkara\">Vasudeva Nanayakkara<\/a> (MP) has written to the Inspector General of Police reiterating a request made to conduct investigations in relation to defrauding of government monies. Nanayakkara had reminded the IGP about this matter in early July, pointing out that in July 2017 the Secretary to the Ministry of Law and Order had forwarded to the Police a complaint that he, Nanayakkara, had made in October 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He has referred to the Waters Edge Case as well as the Lanka Marine Service Case where the sale of the Colombo Port Oil Facility was found fraudulent with Kumaratunga being named among those involved. The complaint also cites Kumaratunga attempting to misappropriate public monies amounting to over 600 million rupees the day before the 2005 Presidential Election. Nanayakkara has pointed out that the Attorney General has neglected to take any action despite Supreme Court directives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":139289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chandrika Confesses \u2018Yahap\u0101lana Govt Is Corrupt\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/chandrika-confesses-yahapalana-govt-is-corrupt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chandrika Confesses \u2018Yahap\u0101lana Govt Is Corrupt\u2019 - 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