Sri Lanka's financial crimes investigating agency not under political control - PM office 
Mon, May 11, 2015, 08:00 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

May 11, Colombo: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) of Sri Lanka today stated that the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) of the Police Department or the Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat is in no way controlled by the Cabinet Sub-committee on Anti-Corruption.

The PMO in a statement noted that the progress of the investigations carried out by the FCID and other law enforcement agencies is subjected to review once a week to ensure effective law enforcement.

"Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) is only a functional division of the Police Department, which was established in response to the emerging trend of serious financial frauds," the Prime Minister's office said in a statement.

The FCID is directly accountable for carrying out investigations throughout the island into serious financial fraud, misuse of state assets or funds, cases of a nature that require intellectual skills and complex detection.

Parliamentarians loyal to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa have criticized the FCID as conducting a political witch-hunt against the members of the former government and called for the unit to be disbanded.

This FCID was established in terms of the provisions of Section 55 of the Police Ordinance, with the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers and it operates under the exclusive supervision and direction of the Inspector General of Police.

According to the PMO, there are 64 functional divisions in the Police Department such as the Terrorist Investigation Division, the Criminal Records Division, the Criminal Investigation Division, the Colombo Crimes Division, the Narcotics Bureau, the Child & Women Bureau, the Fraud Investigation Bureau, the Environment Protection Division, etc.

In fact, most of these divisions were not there at the very inception of the Police Department. These divisions were established from time to time to cater to the contemporary trends; in the same manner the FCID was established. No special statutory power or mandate has been given to the FCID other than the powers vested with the Police Department.

The purpose of establishing this division is to employ the services of experienced officers to handle investigations on financial crimes of a grave nature and expedite those investigations, the statement explained.

The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) is a Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by the Prime Minister, which was set up on a decision taken at the Cabinet meeting held on January 21, 2015.
This Committee was set up with a view to recommending measures to be adopted to prevent the occurrence of large scale corruption and frauds in the future.

On the recommendation of the Anti-Corruption Committee and the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers a dedicated Secretariat named Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat was also established to coordinate the investigations of the allegations on serious frauds, financial crimes and corruption.

"The Government assures the independence of the investigations carried out by all the law enforcement agencies in the country including the FCID and denies any sort of undue political intervention in the enforcement of law," the statement released by the PMO said.