News
JVP hurls allegations of corruption against Rajapaksas, Sajith, others
Opp Leader Sajith and Namal deny allegations
By Saman Indrajith
The JVP yesterday presented a set of files containing what it called documentary proof of corruption involving Namal Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa, Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Thirukumar Nadesan and several others.
The files were displayed during an event held at Sri Lanka Foundation, in Colombo, with the participation of several other JVP leaders and NPP members and the media.
JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that his party was in possession of over 500 files on politicians, former ministry secretaries, and investigative officers involved in corrupt activities.
Dissanayake alleged that Yoshitha Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa had defrauded public money through Nimal Perera and Thirukumar Nadesan.
He said that the files contained documentary proof to show the corruption that took place in the Airbus deal, the Gin Nilwala project, the Krrish Deal, the Hedging Deal and the Hello Corp Deal.
Dissanayake said that one file contained documentary proof of how
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa had misused three billion rupees from the Central Cultural Fund without proper approval.
Opposition Leader Premadasa, asked for comment, said that there was no basis for JVP accusations. “Absolute rubbish,” he said.
There was a corruption case against Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cousin Jaliya Wickramsuriya, who served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Washington from 2008 to 2014. He was accused of misappropriating USD 3,320,000 as commission out of USD 6,250,000 spent to purchase building premises for the Sri Lankan embassy in the US. Wickramsuriya had admitted before a US court that he got that commission. A commission of 3.3 million US dollars from a USD 6.2 million transaction meant that the commission was more than 50 percent.
“There was a recent exposure by Pandora Papers. We continued to say that Thiru Nadesan was the keeper of funds of Basil Rajapaksa. When I stated that in parliament, I was challenged to state the same outside parliament. We have done that several times. Today we expose the links of transactions. There was a project by the name of Gin-Nilwala and the Irrigation Ministry issued 4,100 million US dollars to a Chinese Company known as China National Merchant just a couple of days ahead of the 2015 election. We have documents to prove the transfer of funds from the ministry to the Chinese company which has a branch in Hong Kong. That Honk Kong Branch released five million US dollars to another company registered there under the name Ruth Investments which belonged to Thirukumar Nadesan. That company sent money to an account in a bank in Kollupitiya. The payments to a house in Malwana have been made by that account.
There was a case in London High Court on the French Airbus deal. It was after investigations by the US, the UK and France. Now it has been found that SriLankan Airlines tried to purchase 10 airbuses and lease four airbuses separately. The sum allocated for this purpose was USD 2.2 billion. Until then the record of highest spending was for the Hambantota Port project at USD 1.3 billion. The commission for each airbus was USD 1.6 million and the total sum of the commission was USD16.18 million. It was later revealed that the deal was not successful. Yet an advance of the commission was paid by the company to a bank account in Brunei under the name of the wife of then CEO of SriLankan Kapila Chandrasena. From that account money was transferred to an Australian Bank account which later transferred them to three Lankan bank accounts. One of those accounts belonged to Nimal Perera. Later the yahapalana government cancelled this airbus deal but paid USD 115 million to the airbus company. That payment was made even without cabinet approval.
Convenor of the Voice Against Corruption Wasantha Samarasinghe alleged former Minister Namal Rajapaksa had received money from two Companies – ‘NR Projects’, a Dutch company and ‘Aspen Medical’, an Australian Company through Nimal Perera connected to the construction of the Nuwara Eliya and Hambantota Hospitals. Rajapaksa has denied the allegation.
Samarasinghe said that fraud came to light during the investigations into a complaint they lodged over the Krrish Deal.
He said according to the B report of the case over the Krrish deal, Namal Rajapaksa had admitted that he had received Rs. 60 million and that he had donated it to a Rugby tournament. “However, the Rugby Federation has said that they did not receive such a donation from him,” he said.
Samarasinghe said further investigations into the case revealed the fraud and corruption involving the construction projects of the Nuwara Eliya and Hambantota Hospitals worth Euro 82 million undertaken by the NR Projects, a Dutch company.
He said the Dutch company and Aspen Medical, an Australian Company had deposited money in Nimal Perera’s Sabre Vision Holdings Aaccount in Singapore, from which money had been channelled to Namal Rajapaksa’s account.
He said the Dutch company-NR Projects had deposited Euro 4.33 million and Aspen Medical Company had deposited US$ 555,000 in Nimal Perera’s Singapore Account.
JVP leader Dissanayake said, “These files are only a very small portion of evidence of corruption in this country. We have some more. We are cautious in exposing these frauds so as not to let the fraudsters understand what we know about their frauds. Some of the issues in these files are already under investigation by several institutions including the bribery commission. Some of them are there in the Attorney General’s Department and investigative institutions without any progress being made. We decided to expose them so that people can understand why the country remains poor.”
The Government’s ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund, established to provide relief and support to communities affected by Cyclone Ditwah, continues to receive financial contributions on a daily basis.
Accordingly, the Containers Transport Owners Association made a financial contribution of Rs. 1.5 million, while the Association of SriLankan Airlines Licensed Aircraft Engineers contributed Rs. 1.35 million to the Fund.
The respective cheques were formally presented to the Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday (19).
The occasion was attended by W. M. S. K. Manjula, Chairman of the Containers Transport Owners Association, together with Dilip Nihal Anslem Perera and Jayantha Karunadhipathi.
Representing the Association of SriLankan Airlines Licensed Aircraft Engineers were Deshan Rajapaksa, Samudika Perera and Devshan Rodrigo handed over the cheque.
A meeting between Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and a delegation of UNICEF representatives was held on Saturday, (December 20) at the Prime Minister’s Office.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister explained the measures taken by the Government to ensure the protection of the affected student community and to restore the damaged school system, as well as the challenges encountered in this process.
The Prime Minister stated that reopening schools located in landslide-prone areas would be extremely dangerous. Accordingly, the Government is focusing on identifying such schools and relocating them to suitable locations based on scientific assessments.
The Prime Minister further noted that financial assistance has been provided to students affected by the disaster, enabling parents to send their children back to school without an additional financial burden. Emphasizing that school is the safest place for children after their homes, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that the school environment would help restore and improve students’ mental well-being
The Prime Minister also highlighted that attention has been given to several key areas, including the relocation of disaster-affected schools, restoration of school infrastructure, merging and operating certain schools jointly, facilitating teaching and learning through digital and technological strategies, and providing special transportation facilities. She emphasized that the Government is examining these issues and is committed to finding long-term solutions.
The UNICEF representatives commended the Government’s commitment and the initiatives undertaken to restore the education sector and assured their support to the Government. Both parties also discussed working together collaboratively on future initiatives.
The meeting was attended by the UNICEF representatives to Sri Lanka Emma Brigham, Lakshmi Sureshkumar, Nishantha Subash, and Yashinka Jayasinghe, along with Secretary to the Ministry of Education Nalaka Kaluwewa, Director of Education Dakshina Kasturiarachchi, Deputy Directors Kasun Gunarathne and Udara Dikkumbura.
(Prime Minister’s Media Division)
Drug controversy:
“Setting up state-of-the-art drug testing facility will cost Rs 5 billion”
Activists call for legal action against politicians, bureaucrats
Serious questions have been raised over Sri Lanka’s drug regulatory system following revelations that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority’s (NMRA) quality control laboratory is not accredited by the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB), casting doubt on both the reliability of local test results and the adequacy of oversight of imported medicines.
Medical and civil rights groups warn that the issue points to a systemic regulatory failure rather than an isolated lapse, with potential political and financial consequences for the State.
Chairman of the Federation of Medical and Civil Rights Professional Associations, Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa, said the controversy surrounding the Ondansetron injection, which was later found to be contaminated, had exposed deep weaknesses in drug regulation and quality assurance.
Dr. Sanjeewa said that the manufacturer had confirmed that the drug had been imported into Sri Lanka on four occasions this year, despite later being temporarily withdrawn from use. The drug was manufactured in India in November 2024 and in May and August 2025, and imported to Sri Lanka in February, July and September. On each occasion, 67,600 phials were procured.
Dr. Sanjeewa said the company had informed the NMRA that the drug was tested in Indian laboratories, prior to shipment, and passed all required quality checks. The manufacturer reportedly tested the injections against 10 parameters, including basic quality standards,
pH value, visual appearance, component composition, quantity per phial, sterility levels, presence of other substances, bacterial toxin levels and spectral variations.
According to documents submitted to the NMRA, no bacterial toxins were detected in the original samples, and the reported toxin levels were within European safety limits of less than 9.9 international units per milligram.
Dr. Sanjeewa said the credibility of local regulatory oversight had come under scrutiny, noting that the NMRA’s quality control laboratory was not SLAB-accredited. He said establishing a fully equipped, internationally accredited laboratory would cost nearly Rs. 5 billion.
He warned that the failure to invest in such a facility could have grave consequences, including continued loss of life due to substandard medicines and the inability of the State to recover large sums of public funds paid to pharmaceutical companies for defective drugs.
“If urgent steps are not taken, public money will continue to be lost and accountability will remain elusive,” Dr. Sanjeewa said.
He added that if it was ultimately confirmed that the drug did not contain bacterial toxins at the time it entered Sri Lanka, the fallout would be even more damaging, severely undermining the credibility of the country’s health system and exposing weaknesses in health administration.
Dr. Sanjeewa said public trust in the health sector had already been eroded and called for legal action against all politicians and public officials responsible for regulatory failures linked to the incident.
by Chaminda Silva ✍️
Financial contributions received for ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka’ Fund
UNICEF representatives and PM discuss rebuilding schools affected by the Disaster
A few showers may occur in the Uva province and in Ampara, Batticaloa, Matale, Nuwara-Eliya, and Hambantota districts
NMRA laboratory lacks SLAB accreditation
Air quality deteriorating in Sri Lanka
Cardinal urges govt. not to weaken key socio-cultural institutions
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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