Madam Poshitha changes the manner of accepting bribes
Thursday, 07 February 2013 
Administration Commissioner of the Motor Vehicle Department, Poshitha Abeysirigunawardena has started harassing employees of the department whom she believes had given information about her to our website following the publication of the story(Meet Motor Vehicle Commissioner Madam Poshitha, to get work done without an owner )revealing how she accepts bribes, sources from the department said.
Before the expose, Poshitha used to openly accept bribes, but has now changed her manner and style of taking money. She has managed to get employees at the department whom she believed have spoken against her transferred out and has replaced them with persons she has worked with earlier at the Department for the Registration of Persons.
Therefore, persons who are affiliated to Poshitha at the Department for the Registration of Persons are getting transfers to the Motor Vehicle Department.
Director General of the Motor Vehicle Department, S.H. Harischandra has not taken any action against Poshitha’s conduct. Poshitha is the wife of Senior DIG Jagath Abeysirigunawardena and she is engaged in accepting bribes without any fear of being reported to the Transport Ministry, Bribery Commission or the Presidential Secretariat due to her affiliation to the Police.
Senior DIG Jagath Abeysirigunawardena is also a police officer who does not hold a good name in the Police Department.
| Customs loses Rs 480 M |
By Gagani Weerakoon-2013-02-07
The Sri Lanka Customs has incurred loss of approximately Rs 480 million as a result of the government granting permission to import eight super luxury limousines to Sri Lanka in the period 2010 to 2011.
This was disclosed during a response by Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister of International Monetary Co-operation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, to an oral question posed by Colombo District UNP Parliamentarian, Ravi Karunanayake, in Parliament yesterday.
Accordingly, the loss incurred for each limousine is Rs 60 million. All eight limousines were imported by Prestige Limousines (Pvt) Ltd. in 2011.
Karunanayake questioned as to why the government granted special permission to import limousines, to which Dr. Amunugama responded in the negative saying no 'special permission' was granted, but those were imported under the normal regulations that prevailed in the country at the time.
Any individual can import any item that was not prohibited by the Import and Export (Control) Act, No. 1 of 1969, by paying due taxes according to the prevailing regulations, thus, these limousines were imported according to these regulations, the minister said.
Karunanayake, however, pointed out that according to the answer tabled by the minister, only Rs 4,300,000 (Rs 4.3 million) has been paid as duty for each limousine imported, which had ultimately ended up depriving the Customs of Rs 480 million.
"Why did the government allow this to happen?" he questioned, to which Dr. Amunugama responded, "We did not realized it then, but as soon as we realized that we are incurring a loss, we imposed a 350% duty on the importation of super luxury vehicles (limousines) in last budget."
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