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Proposed anti-corruption legislation: Calls for more public consultations

16 Oct 2022

By Skandha Gunasekara The Ministry of Justice is expected to present the new anti-corruption legislation to the Cabinet of Ministers this week, it is learnt. However, corruption watchdog groups have highlighted that there is a need for the draft legislation to be amended and that it requires further public consultation.  Chair of the Committee that formulated the draft legislation, President’s Counsel and former Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) Sarath Jayamanne said there were several salient features of the bill, including the complete independence of the commission.  “The commission will be independent, in the sense that it will not be required to go before the Treasury or other agencies to seek money and funds; it can get funds directly from Parliament. Secondly, the commission will have the power to recruit the experts needed for investigations under its own criteria. There will also be a new online asset declaration and the public will be entitled to get a redacted version of asset declarations of public servants,” Jayamanne said. He said that a programme to protect whistle-blowers had also been introduced to the draft legislation as well as a number of new offences. “A number of new offences have been introduced, including sexual bribery and bribing of foreign public officials, along with several procedural offences such as if the investigators are threatened or giving a false statement to the commission. We have also included private sector corruption in the new law. The commission will introduce a comprehensive whistle-blower protection programme. It has been formulated following comparison with similar systems in other countries,” he explained. According to Jayamanne, concerns raised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will be addressed by this bill. “We have looked at other successful jurisdictions and introduced these new offences. We are also duty-bound under the United Nations Convention against Corruption to implement new procedures. The UNODC has found certain lacunae in our laws and we have looked at those recommendations also.” Public consultation needed However, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) has warned that public consultation was needed to include any additional amendments before the bill was made law.  “We should not rush a law such as this. It is something that has been in the pipeline – a comprehensive, composite law that will bring together all the different laws that deal with corruption and also address loopholes and the prevailing gaps. If we are finally bringing in such a law, it has to be subject to proper and adequate public consultation and proper and adequate expert review. Rushing something like this cannot be accepted,” TISL Executive Director Nadishani Perera told The Sunday Morning. She added that inadequacies of law enforcement must also be addressed to ensure that whichever anti-corruption legislation was implemented properly.  “The main problem in our country has not been the inadequacy of laws to deal with corruption but the weaknesses or failures of law enforcement, basically not enforcing the laws that we have – not enforcing them equally or adequately. There are also issues of these law enforcement agencies not having sufficient resources and independence. So as long as these issues persist, we could have the best anti-corruption laws in the world, but we still will not see the expected outcomes of combating or mitigating corruption. This cannot be seen as the solution to corruption in Sri Lanka. It is an important step to address the loopholes and the gaps we had in our law, but the process also has to be proper and a lot of focus has to be on the enforcement of this law.” Recommended amendments TISL has also recommended a number of amendments to the proposed bill, including checks and balances regarding the appointment of members to ensure independence, to avoid undue political influence, and to include that the commission shall consist of three members appointed by the President, on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. “It is recommended not to include any officer of the Attorney General’s Department. Such inclusion can negatively affect the independence of the commission and cause conflicts of interests given that the Attorney General is the chief legal adviser of the incumbent Government,” TISL recommended in a report published recently. When contacted about the draft legislation, Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told The Sunday Morning that the bill would be presented to the Cabinet of Ministers in the coming week. “The draft bill of the new Anti-Corruption Law will include provisions to ensure and protect the rights of whistle-blowers and abolish the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law and provide for the latter in the proposed new law. It is expected to be submitted to the Cabinet in the coming week, following constitutional certification by the Attorney General.” Rajapakshe said this new bill was also a response to allegations of economic crimes recently made by the United Nations Human Rights Council.  


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