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Allegations and counter allegations
The Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption has set aside a complaint lodged by the People's Alliance against 14 ministers and six officials. Bribery and Corruption Chief Ananda Coomarasamy said that in the absence of a member, the Commission has no power to carry out investigations into new complaints.

Meanwhile Mr. Coomarasamy confirmed he had received the complaint from PA members on Thursday. "For the past one year we have been making efforts to get a member appointed to the Commission to reactivate it but have not been successful", he said.

"I can't do any thing about this complaint, because the Commission does not have the power to investigate these complaints", he said. The vacancy arose in the Bribery or Corruption Commission due to the death of N. Abeywira who was one of the Commissioners.

The PA in their complaint had alleged that some UNF ministers and some top officials were allegedly involved in large-scale corruption and wanted the Commission to take action against them.

In what appears to be a counter move, a UNF delegation appeared before the Bribery or Corruption Commission yesterday to hand over 13 petitions with more than a hundred allegations against President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the former PA government.

They pointed out the Bribery Commission Act provides for punishment by imprisonment for a term of 10 years for persons making false complaints to the Commission and also allowed for the payment of damages by them to the persons affected by such false complaints.

The 14 UNF ministers in a statement signed by them said that they would be claiming damages against the 16 PA members who had filed the complaint.

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