Term ends this month for Bribery Commission

The three-member Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) commonly known as the Bribery Commission, will see the end of its present tenure by March 29, 2010 until new members are appointed on the recommendations of the Constitutional Council.

However, the Constitutional Council (CC) too is yet to be constituted and appointments to the Independent Commissions as envisaged by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is out of the question at the moment.

According to sources, once the term of the Bribery Commission ends on 29th of this month (March), neither fresh complaints on alleged bribery or corruption could be investigated by it nor action on ongoing investigations which conclude after March 29 be taken by the commission.

CIABOC is among the several independent commissions that came to be formulated under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, the others being the Public Services Commission and the National Police Commission. The current CIABOC was constituted on March 29, 2005. The current members are Justice Ameer Ismail who is the chairman while Justice P. Edussuriya and former IGP T.I. de Silva are the two other members.

The Act No. 19 of 1994, under which appointments are made to the three member commission, stipulates that two members of the commission should be retired judges of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal while the other should be an official with experience in crime solving and law enforcement, apparently the Police.

The National Police Commission and the Public Services Commission also are non-functional now due to members being not appointed by the Constitutional Council, which itself is non-functional without its members being appointed.

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