Government assures credibility of probe

The Government today assured the credibility of the investigations being conducted by the?Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the?Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat (ACC).

A statement by the Prime Minister’s office noted that the?FCID is only a functional division of the Police Department, which was established in response to the emerging trend of serious financial frauds. This division was established in terms of the provisions of the 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.

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

“In fact, most of those divisions were not there at the very inception of the Police Department. Those divisions were established from time to time to cater to the contemporary trends, in the same manner the FCID was established. No any 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 group of officers to handle investigations on financial crimes of grave nature and expedite those investigations,” the statement by the Prime Minister’s office said.

The statement also noted that the Anti-Corruption Committee is a Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by the Prime Minister, which was setup as per a decision taken at the Cabinet meeting held on 21.01.2015. This Committee was setup with a view to recommending measures to be adopted to prevent the occurrence of large scale corruption and frauds in 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.

“It should be noted that the Financial Crimes Investigation Division of the Police Department or the Anti-Corruption Committee Secretariat are not controlled by the Cabinet Sub-committee on Anti-Corruption by any means, although the progress of the investigations carried out not only by the FCID but also by the other law enforcement agencies is reviewed once a week so as to ensure effective law enforcement,” the statement said.

The Government, in the statement, assured the independence of the investigations carried out by all the law enforcement agencies in the country including the Financial Crimes Investigation Division and denies any sort of undue political intervention to the enforcement of law. (Colombo Gazette)