Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-03-06

Enactment of a New Act in respect of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC)

- Approval of the Cabinet has been granted, in principle, to amend the laws pertaining to Bribery or Corruption and pursuant to the said Cabinet approval, action is being taken to amend the Bribery Act, No.11 of 1954. The power of instituting prosecutions in respect of the offences under the Bribery Act and the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, No.1 of 1975 has been vested with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, established by the Act, No.19 of 1994.

In terms of Article 156A(1) of the Constitution as amended by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, provisions should be made to vest the CIABOC with the power to conduct investigations on its own motion or on a complaint made to the Commission by another individual pertaining to an allegation of bribery or corruption and to institute prosecutions on the same and to implement the International Conventions relating to the prevention of corruption to which Sri Lanka is a party.

For this purpose, it has become apparent that it would be more appropriate to introduce a new Act for the establishment of CIABOC as an independent entity by further strengthening the same instead of amending the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption Act, No.19 of 1994. As such, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a new Bill for the purpose, was approved by the Cabinet.