CWE bandicoot and two accomplices finally enter the mouse trap: Five cases of fraud involving Rs. 40 million against former trade minister Johnston.!
Jonston Fernando manchu LeN 20.05.2016
(Lanka-e-News -20.May.2016, 9.00PM) As many as five criminal cases were filed by the Commission inquiring into allegations of bribery and corruption in the Colombo chief magistrate court yesterday (19) against Johnston Fernando alias Johnie the former minister of cooperatives and internal trade during the nefarious decade of Mahinda Rajapakse who is also by now known as a byword for lawlessness and corruption.
These cases have been filed on charges of deploying a large number of employees of the Co operative wholesale Establishment (CWE) during the period between 2010 and 2014 in his private political activities thereby precluding them from performing their legitimate duties as government servants , consequent upon which the government of Sri Lanka has incurred a loss of over Rs. 40.1 million !!
In addition , cases have also been filed against Johnie’s henchmen Eraj Tiriyantha Fernando the ex chairman of CWE as well as against Kaja Mohideen Mohomed Shakir who was its working Director at that time on charges of aiding and abetting in Johnie’s corrupt and criminal activities .
The case is to be heard on 5 th of June.
The case details are given hereunder ….
During the tenure of office of the first accused as minister , Johnston Xavier Fernando had misused the employees of the Establishment for his private purposes , while paying their salaries and allowances out of government funds which have been disbursed as follows :
Rs. 1,501, 703/43 disbursed to about 10 employees in the year 2010
Rs.6,007, 617/18 disbursed to about 27 employees in 2011.
Rs. 8,645,869/38 to about 31 employees in 2012
Rs. 11,077, 047/36 to about 39 employees in 2013
Rs. 12,888,818/36 to about 40 employees in 2014
Accordingly , the ex minister had engendered a huge loss of Rs. 40,121,055/71 to the government ! between 2011 and 2014
The figures above show a steady escalation in corruption from year to year meaning that Johnie’s corruption had grown every year ,most surely and steadily . This was because Johnie harbored the confidence and conviction at that time when he was indulging in these colossal frauds that under the lawless and corrupt regime of the Rajapakses he could commit any fraud and any financial irregularities at public expense while enjoying impunity and be free from incrimination.
The Commission inquiring into allegations of bribery and corruption in its report to the court had charged the first accused Johnie under section 70 of its Act of having committed corruption . The first accused is indicted on charges of knowingly and wantonly causing the loss to the government by misusing State resources to secure illegal personal gains.
At the same time Eraj Thiriyantha Fernando and Kaja Mohideen Mohomed Shakir the second and third accused respectively , have been indicted on charges under section 70 of the Bribery and Corruption Act of troubling Manika Baduge Nilushi Nadeeka Sanjeewani the chief of the financial division to release the payments every now and then, based on the report produced to court
The second and third accused had also been charged additionally of committing an offence under section 102 and 113(b) of the penal code of aiding and abetting the first accused johnie ; acting in collusion with a common intention ; and conspiring to commit the offences .
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by (2016-05-20 15:34:51)
