Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake challenged former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to go before Courts if the vital details that the Minister exposed to the media how the previous regime influenced the bond issues are false.
The minister pointed out that such issues should not be discussed in places of worship or on political platforms. He said the judiciary system has been freed today to enable any faction to seek justice from any Court against injustice.
The Minister expressed these views on March 1 at the launch of Sri Lanka Customs official new website at the new auditorium of the Finance Ministry in Colombo. The Customs Department re-launched its official website to enable customers to obtain necessary information hassle free. Minister Karunanayake said the government was changed, but certain officers who aided corruption of the previous government have still been serving in the Central Bank.
“This is the 10th time I make the challenge to former President. He accepted none of my nine previous challenges. There is no point complaining at every junction and on political platforms. Several senior officers of the Central Bank who aided and abetted the corrupt administration of the bank which was reined jointly by Ajith Nivard Cabraal and Mahinda Rajapaksa are still serving in their posts. So we exposed them. Therefore, I repeatedly challenge them to go before Courts if our exposure is untrue,” Minister Karunanayake said.
The minister also expressed his views about the new action plan of the Customs Department.
“The proposals made in Budget 2017 were implemented and have reached to successful levels. Tthe Sri Lanka Customs is marching fast successfully than in the past. We all should be proud of it. However, we should speed up our pace more and more. The website we launched today will help the general public to make easy access to the Customs hassle free. It will also create more transparency as well. Operations of the Customs should be fully open to the people. We speak about transparency and we implement such policies as well. Customs officials have been allowed to go overseas for further education in customs activities.
I should remind these young officers of the Customs that we are ready to provide such facilities further if anybody needs to pursue higher studies in the sector. Ministers need not to participate in this type of events. It is my duty to perform such activities in full transparency.”
Sri Lanka Customs Department Director General Chulananda Perera also spoke.
“There are several special features on this new website. One specific item is that it was designed and developed by our staff.
It is user friendly. It will be updated constantly and a special committee has been appointed to attend to such needs. We will set up a new human relations unit in the near future. The proposed Unit will provide our customers easy access to the information of their containers round the clock,” the Director General said.
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