In conjunction with the four-day industrial exhibition (2024), a conference on debt restructuring of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs was held on Sunday (23) presided over by Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, at the BMICH in Colombo.
The Minister expressing his views to the industrial entrepreneurs on the occasion said,
“It is very difficult to get industrial entrepreneurs uplifted in our country. It is not something that happens in a day or two. An economic policy framework that should protect the businessmen and industrialists has not yet been prepared in our country. The necessary legal policy has not been prepared yet and because of these two factors, the background has been prepared for the collapse of the country’s economy.
“The IMF told us to strengthen the law on bribery and corruption. I actually started drafting that Bill in 2015. In 2004 we signed the Anti-Corruption Charter. We could not finish the Bill that we started to make in 2015. We told the IMF that we are strengthening the Anti-Corruption Act not because the IMF advised us to do so, but because we want it. We worked towards making it stronger. What’s wrong with that?
“What is wrong with making laws so that politicians and officials cannot steal? We will make more laws. It is coming under the power of the Cabinet.
“We will also confiscate proceeds earned from crime. Then many problems will be solved. According to the new laws, how the assets have been earned should be proved. We have to prove before the law how the money was received. If a person cannot prove how his assets have been earned, according to the new system, it will be taken over by the government. According to the new law, the assets can be confiscated even without a Court order. Corruption should be stopped in this country.
Varuna Dayaratne
