News
CIABOC law to be amended; cases can be filed with one commissioner’s signature
The Government is planning to amend the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) Act to enable the Commission to file new cases with the signature of just one Commissioner.
This is being done to ensure that fresh cases are not withdrawn on a legal technicality following a Supreme Court (SC) judgement, a senior Commission official said.
The Commission has withdrawn nearly 70 cases from Magistrate’s Courts and High Courts following the SC judgement in the “Anoma Polwatte vs Bribery Commission” case where the court ruled that the signatures of all three Commissioners must be obtained to file criminal charges against a suspect.
As such, the cases where the signatures of all three commissioners had not been obtained were withdrawn.
The Commission is also drawing up plans to refile the withdrawn cases after obtaining the signatures of all three Commissioners, the official said.
It was, however, not clear if these cases will be refiled soon and if all the withdrawn cases will be refiled.
The Commission is also to be given new powers to investigate offences coming under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. These offences are now investigated by the police.
The Act will be amended so that both offering and receiving bribes will come under the offence of corruption.
The Bribery Commission,
which will be renamed as the Corruption Investigation Commission, will also have a special unit under it to investigate offences coming under the Money Laundering Act.
A special fund is due to be established for the Commission to ensure that it can function on its own funding as an independent body.
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