Sri Lanka It's Happening

January 31, 2007

In Sri Lanka bribery is illegal but most politicians usually get away with it because the comission to investigate bribery and corruption is inactive. Worst still there is a clause in the act that says it's an offence to make a false allegation of bribery and corruption. What better way to make sure that no one complains? if you do, the culprits will get away because of the lethargy of the investigators. And that would make the person who made the complaint a criminal!

There is one form of bribery that is perfectly legal. You can offer a ministry to a member of parliament to 'cross over'. That is an opposition MP can be bought. The government has to bear the cost of their perk, which includes severl vehicals, bodyguards, drivers, secrataries, offices, free phones, computers etc etc etc.

So the government which has not had a majority in parliament for a long time has bought 18 MPs. More than 20 MPs have been bought all in all. It costs around 100,000,000 rupees a month to maintain this cabinet of empty vessels.