CPC chairman Ashantha de Mel was suspended by the SC

The Supreme Court has in recent times given three land mark judgements involving Lanka Marine Services Ltd., The Waters Edge transaction and the CPC’s hedging deal. The judges have passed strong strictures on a former president, several govt. officials, the Secretary to the Treasury, the most exalted position of the then CCS, a minister and a corporation chairman, who has been removed from his position and imposed heavy fines on some of the respondents and ordered the payment of compensation.

These judgements can go a long way in bringing about good governance only if the present day and future rulers now in the opposition would care to learn a lesson. But politicians, specially the Sri Lankan species, hardly ever learn from their own or othermistakes and will go on bungling, causing immense hardships to the public and loss to the country.

‘The Island’ of 29/11 reports that the govt. will not probe 30 of the 46 cases of waste, corruption and irregularities exposed by COPE involving losses running to billion of rupees. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption will investigate only three of the 13 cases revealed by COPE over a year ago. This means that the corrupt politicos and officials who have fattened themselves at public expense will go scot free and live to fleece the country yet again.

There is no doubt that the government wants to shield the powerful xxxx for more than one reason.

If the government doesn’t want to initiate investigations of its own accord, as a logical part of administrative procedures and good governance, I wonder if any earlier government did and bring the culprits to book and unmask them in public.

We only need some individuals or organisation/s to move the SC for an order to the government to investigate all the cases reported by COPE and the PAC and complete the investigations within a given time frame – preferably before the next round of elections.