Drawing two pensions:Ex-SPC secretary arrested

Monday, 11 August 2014 

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is probing former Secretary of the Southern Provincial Council Amaradasa Perera for allegedly receiving over Rs. 5 million by drawing two pensions for many years.

Investigations have revealed that the pensioner had obtained pensions from two Divisional Secretariat areas.

Police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said that it was among several other investigations into major pension frauds over the past couple of years. Asked by The Island whether the pensioner had been taken into custody, SSP Rohana said that the police were looking for him.

Responding to another query, the police spokesman said that the CID had been called in to inquire fraudulent activities in the delivery of pensions following a complaint received by the Warakapola police some time back.

The police official revealed that ongoing investigations had revealed a spate of frauds causing losses amounting to nearly Rs. 20 million.

Investigators have so far taken in eight persons into custody.

The police called for public support to identify those engaged in pension frauds. SSP Rohana said that there was provision in the law to keep suspects in remand custody until the hearing of their respective cases. The official said that a special CID unit was engaged in investigations to arrest the situation.

A Welcome Step In The Right Direction

By Rajiva Wijesinha -August 11, 2014 |

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP

It is an honour, Mr Chairman, to have been asked to speak on the Prescription (Special Provisions) Bill, which I am very happy to support.  It a necessary measure, and should have been introduced some years back. Ineed I recall six years ago, when I headed the Peace Secretariat, having a meeting with the Chair of the Law Commission about the need to introduce legislation of this sort, and being impressed because they too had already thought about this.

I had been unexpectedly drawn into public life from the rural pleasures of Sabaragamuwa University, but I thought it necessary to interpret my mandate widely, in the interests of peace and reconciliation. It seemed sensible then to also plan for the future. Though much was uncertain at the time, we had to hope that we could overcome terrorism, as indeed we successfully did a year or so later. But we also needed to eradicate the root causes of terrorism, which required, as the Secretary of Defence eloquently put it in those days, at a function at the Central Bank late in 2008, a political solution, which was not his area of concern.

Planning for the future then was of the essence, and I was pleased to find that the Law Commission had already thought of the problems the existing provisions regarding Prescription might cause. After all, it was manifestly unfair that those who had left their lands because of terrorism should have to lose these because others had occupied them for the period required to claim ownership. I recall being told that draft legislation was ready at the time, so it is sad that this lay forgotten for so long.Read More