(August 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In our previous exposures of the above we reproduced the Attorney General’s opinion given to the Director General of Customs on 10-05-2010 which carried a warning that the AG would withdraw the action pending before the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal ruling favoring the Colombo Dockyard Ltd. This is despite the fact the company had already conceded guilt by making a special deposit of 95 million rupees with Customs, to apply against the final determination of the Customs inquiry that was pending against the Company.
Now we draw your watchful eye to the three dodgy minutes made on the AG’s letter [10-05-2010] by three of the most senior Customs men, one being the Deputy Director General [Enforcement] ZAM Jazeel and the other, the Director [Preventive] Thilak Perera, on 31-05-2010 and the final minute dated 23-06-2010 by Deputy Director of Customs Lalitha Weerasinghe, sealing the fate of the Dockyard scandal. You would observe that all these Customs men have totally dismissed the minute made by the OIC of the Customs Legal Affairs Unit, condemning the AG’s dodgy opinion which was clear deviation of his own opinion expressed to the DGC on 04-11-2009.
Three minutes by these Customs men, clearly demonstrate the surreptitious and hurried action taken by them to shut the case abruptly with no knowledge or consent of the new DGC Mrs Karunarathna. By then the new DGC had just taken over the office of the DGC from Sarath Jayathilake who had been involved in this scandal for a period of over 10 years.
It is evident from the minute made on the AG’s letter by the OIC Legal affairs, addressed to the Deputy DGC ZAM Jazeel that the AG, at the meeting held at the AG’s office on 04-11-2009, had advised the Customs to proceed with the Customs inquiry since the Court of Appeal ruling favoring the Colombo Dockyard Ltd does not preclude the holding of the Customs inquiry. Connivance of the ZAM Jazeel in the Dockyard scandal is clearly evident to any watchful eye, from his own admission by his minute on the AG’s letter. He simply concedes that he had failed to take any action to resume the Customs inquiry for a 6-month period since AG’s advice given on 04-11-2009 and hence order all officials down the line to close the case as per the AG’s irrational advice given to DGC on 10-05-2010.
However, with the appointment of Mrs S Karunarathna to the office of the DGC the tide has completely changed. She had taken a firm stand on this issue, challenging the dodgy opinion expressed by the AG Mohan Peiris to shut the case. Her decision also cancelled the improper action taken by the three Customs men, whose conduct suggest their apparent collusion in this day light robbery committed by the Colombo Dockyard Ltd. The Customs insiders believe that these three men had acted on the advice of the former DGC Jajathilake who had missed the opportunity to close the case before his sudden removal, solely due to the fact that the original case record had gone missing and could not be traced.
The new DGC’s letter sent to AG on 03- 08-2010 [see the image of the letter shown separately] demonstrates her stand that clearly goes against AG’s advice. Her stand is based on the consideration of the colossal revenue loss incurred by the government and also based on the sudden deviation of the AG’s own stand since his original opinion dated 04-11-2009. The new DGC had plainly informed the AG that the withdrawal of the Supreme Court action at this stage is inappropriate.
Now the concerned officers in the Customs are carefully monitoring what action would be taken against the three customs men against whom charges on corruption is looming for abuse of office for defrauding the government revenue. Their improper conduct also warrant dismissal from the Customs Service under the provisions of the of the Customs Ordinance [Section 137], and corruption charges under the Bribery and Corruption law.
Last Sunday, the print media [Sunday Leader] exposed the Secretary to the Treasury [ST] Dr Jayasundara’s double stand in this case, which is seen as an abuse of office of the ST by Dr Jayasundara to accommodate a revenue fraudster. Further to the media exposure of AG’s double standard in this scandalous affair and DGC’s firm stand notified to the AG to go ahead with the Dockyard Court action, we can reveal that Dr Jayasundara had summoned the DGC and a team of Customs officials involved in the case, and severely reprimanded them to comply with the AG’s advice and not pursue Court action against the Colombo Dockyard. However, the ST PB Jayasundara, who had learnt lessons from previous Court orders made against him with harsh penalties and strictures, that followed by his removal from the public service, had taken necessary precautionary measures not to give anything in writing confirming his dodgy directive to the DGC.
In this background, we can reveal that the Customs Officers Union has come forward to protect the interests of the Customs and the DGC. The union members have called upon the DGC Mrs Karunarathna to take proper action to safeguard the office of the DGC by taking the wrongdoers to task, irrespective of their positions held in the Customs Service. They have also urged the DGC to call for a written confirmation from the ST of his verbal directive given to abandon the Court action initiated against the Colombo Dockyard Ltd. The letter by the trade union, an image which is reproduced here, urges that such an action is a necessity as the directive given by the ST is not in the best interests of the protection of the government revenue.
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