Rs 619 Million Public Funds Fraud Case Against Mohan Peiris And PB Jayasundara: The Lawyer Was Threatened
The former Attorney General Mohan Peiris, the Finance Ministry Secretary PB Jayasundara and the Colombo Dockyard Company Ltd finally achieved their goal with the withdrawal of the lawyer, Nagananda Kodituwakku, from a case due to threats to his life which he had reported to the Inspector General of Police and the British High Commission before returning to the UK. This case would never have come to such an end, had the Supreme Court taken a firm stand and refused the numerous applications made for postponement and instead subjected the conduct of Mohan Peiris and PB Jayasundara to judicial scrutiny, upholding the judicial power its exercise that emanates from the people.
PB and Mohan
This case due to come up before the Supreme Court tomorrow effectively challenges the integrity and honesty of the then Attorney General Mohan Peiris, who is cited in his personal capacity in the case together with the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, PB Jayasundara, for their alleged misconduct and abuse of office held in trust, that cost the public funds to the tune of over 619 million rupees alleged to have been defrauded by the Colombo Dockyard Company Ltd.
Modus Operandi
The Colombo Dockyard Company (CDL) is a BOI approved company that is allowed to import raw material to make marine crafts free of all fiscal duties and all finished products were meant for the export market only. However, in any event if the CDL decides to sell any finished product in the local market, the law require, it to obtain prior approval from the BOI, and to pay all fiscal levies on the value of the goods so determined by Customs. The Director General of Customs (DGC), Sudharama Karunarathna reaffirms this fact in her observations sent to the AG.
The CDL had sold 21 marine crafts neither with the prior approval of the BOI and nor after the payment of the fiscal levies to Customs. The CDL had collected the entire fiscal duty component of 619 million rupees from the buyers [Sri Lanka Navy and the Ports Authority] and then had misappropriated the total sum so collected without paying a single cent to Customs. The act committed by the CDL was a criminal act of misappropriation of public funds as reaffirmed by the DGC in her observations.
