Sri Lanka's ongoing anti-corruption drive has been hit by a threat of non-cooperation from public officials, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the parliament today.
He was answering an opposition query on the lack of swift progress on the investigations by the police's Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID).
The opposition legislator Sunil Handunnetththi asked Wickremesinghe on the progress in the probe, while hinting at political influence to go slow in prosecuting the culprits.
The FCID had finalised 44 investigations and sent the files to the Attorney General for advice.
The chief opposition whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake intervened to say that one particular investigation where at least six public officials were to be arrested for alleged wrong doings had been stalled due to political influence.
Wickremesinghe replied saying that a group of public officials are now signing a petition claiming that their freedom to act had been hampered by the investigations and want to pull out from their work.
The Prime Minister said the file had been forwarded to the Attorney General for advise on the issue.
If the legal advice is for them to be arrested the orders will be executed by the police, he said.
Since the present government came in January 2015, the FCID was set up as a special mechanism to try those responsible for financial corruption in the former Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.
Several including the close family members of Rajapaksa have been arrested and charges filed in courts.
Rajapaksa and his opposition backers claim that the FCID needs to be disbanded as it had not been set up following proper legal procedures.
