Officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) have arrested a Development Officer attached to the Uva Provincial Council over an alleged Rs. 8.1 million bribery transaction linked to the export of phosphate.
The suspect, who previously served as private secretary to former State Minister of Primary Industries Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, was arrested on Monday (21) at about 4.55 p.m., the Daily Mirror reported.
The allegation
CIABOC alleges the officer solicited and accepted Rs. 8.1 million in exchange for facilitating the export of phosphate through Lanka Phosphate Limited for three selected companies, outside standard regulatory procedures.
According to the commission, the suspect had agreed to arrange unauthorised phosphate exports exclusively for those three companies and to help them obtain the necessary export licences. The arrest followed a CIABOC operation mounted in connection with the alleged transaction.
Update: how the case began, and the pricing allegation
NewsFirst reported further detail after this article was first published.
CIABOC told the Badulla Magistrate’s Court that the investigation was opened after an anonymous complaint received in 2023, and that the suspect faces charges of committing corruption. The conduct is placed in 2023, when the suspect is alleged to have granted approval for the three companies to export phosphate through Lanka Phosphate Limited.
NewsFirst adds the commercial core of the allegation, which the earlier report did not carry: the transactions not only bypassed standard procurement procedure but sold the resource at local market rates without regard to higher global market prices — that is, the alleged loss to the state runs beyond the bribe itself to the price the phosphate fetched.
NewsFirst describes the suspect as a former secretary to Dassanayake, who it refers to as a sitting Member of Parliament.
Update — 25 September: remanded to October 9, seven more arrests expected
Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama ordered the suspect further remanded until October 9, the Daily Mirror reported.
The most substantial new disclosure is the scale of the inquiry: CIABOC told court that seven more suspects are due to be arrested in connection with the case. No timeframe was given, and none of the seven were identified.
The venue has moved. The 21 September arrest was placed before the Badulla Magistrate’s Court; Thursday’s order came from the Colombo Chief Magistrate. Neither outlet explains the transfer.
Two points in the Daily Mirror’s account do not sit together. Its opening description of the allegation is the familiar one — that the suspect arranged for only three selected companies to export phosphate, deviating from the prescribed procedure. But the paragraph setting out the Rs. 8.1 million bribe says he took the money “by assisting and facilitating the obtaining of licences required by the relevant companies to import phosphate.”
Export and import are opposite transactions, and earlier reporting from both the Daily Mirror and NewsFirst described an export scheme throughout. This site is not able to resolve which is correct from the filings available and has not silently corrected it; the charge sheet should settle the point.
The report also adds that the money was deposited into the suspect’s bank account, a detail the arrest coverage did not carry.
Context
Lanka Phosphate Limited is the state-owned company that mines and processes rock phosphate from the Eppawala deposit in Anuradhapura District, the country’s only commercially worked phosphate reserve. Its output is directed primarily at domestic fertiliser supply, and exports are subject to regulatory approval.
The suspect holds a provincial council post and is no longer in the ministerial secretariat role referred to in coverage of the arrest; the two positions are distinct. No charges have yet been filed in court, and CIABOC has not named the three companies said to have benefited.
