- People’s Movement Against Corruption alleges documents disclosed following an RTI Commission order against BOC reveal rampant corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interest
Documents disclosed by Bank of Ceylon (BOC) have exposed shocking evidence of its former Chairman Gamini Wickramasinghe’s culpability in pilfering a staggering Rs. 450 million during his tenure from 2007 to 2013 – by abusing his position and funnelling State funds into his own pocket, by awarding lucrative contracts to companies he personally owned. This revelation comes in the wake of a landmark order delivered by the Right to Information (RTI) Commission, following an RTI application and appeal made by the People’s Movement Against Corruption (PMAC).
The disclosed documents have exposed evidence of grand corruption, abuse of authority and conflict-of-interest committed by Wickramasinghe during his tenure as the Chairman of BOC. During
Wickramasinghe’s tenure as BOC Chairman, he had awarded lucrative contracts for IT services and the purchasing and installation of IT related products including the procurement of ATMs – to Informatics Ltd., and Visual Computing Systems Ltd., both entities personally owned by him and his family. The disclosed documents further revealed that hundreds of millions of rupees had been obtained by Wickramasinghe and his private companies, as loans, overdrafts, Letter of Guarantees, Letter of Credits and Trust Receipts during his tenure as the bank’s
chairman.
In 2007, BOC had paid Informatics an amount of Rs. 23.9 million for IT-related services and Rs. 9 million for ATM maintenance, it was revealed by the disclosed documents. During that year, Wickramasinghe awarded contracts for the purchase and installation of Wincor-Nixdorf ATM machines to his own company – Informatics Ltd., resulting in the bank incurring a further cost of Rs. 4.2 million.
In 2008, BOC made a payment of Rs. 70,217,468.25 (Rs. 70.2 million) to the former Chairman’s private company for obtaining IT services, while an additional Rs. 6,547,700 had been paid to the currently defunct Visual Computing Systems Ltd., which operated as a subsidiary of the Informatics Group of Companies founded and headed by Wickramasinghe. The documents further disclosed that in 2008, BOC paid Rs. 62.7 million for purchasing computer hardware from Informatics Ltd., without a proper tender procedure being followed.
In 2009, Wickramasinghe awarded further BOC contracts to Informatics for the purchasing and installation of ATMs at the cost of Rs. 45,957,606, while an additional amount of Rs. 4,989,981.67 was paid by BOC to Visual Computing Systems Ltd. for the service and maintenance of the bank’s tandem servers.
Informatics was paid Rs.42,860,296 and Rs. 89.7 million in IT contracts in 2010, while an additional Rs. 12.3 million was paid for the purchasing and installation of ATM machines. In 2011, BOC had paid Rs. 16. 2 million and a separate amount of Rs. 3.9 million to Informatics for IT related services and the purchasing of ATM machines respectively. In 2012, BOC paid $ 90,405 to Informatics as an annual maintenance fee for servers. While the maintenance of servers had been previously contracted to Visual Computing, BOC has made the maintenance payment to Informatics Ltd. The documents further revealed that in 2012, BOC paid Informatics an additional Rs. 11 million for the procurement and installation of ATMs and Rs. 8,984,794.03 for purchasing related IT hardware.
The disclosed documents further revealed that Wickramasinghe obtained personal overdrafts and credit facilities from BOC amounting to Rs. 11.5 million in 2007 and Rs. 6.7 million in 2008. In 2007 alone $ 202,795 had been granted to Visual Computing Systems Ltd. as Letters of Credit and Acceptance Loans. In 2008, two separate trust receipt loans totalling $ 10,526,000 were granted to Visual Computing Systems Ltd., while Informatics Ltd. was granted a further $ 60,000 credit facility.
The documents further exposed that during Wickramasinghe’s tenure as the Chairman of BOC, he had invested $ 349,000 on BOC issued debenture stocks which were acquired at a private placement in 2008. The documents have revealed that Wickramasinghe who was previously the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission was the only board director of BOC that had invested in the US dollar debenture stocks in 2008.
It was further disclosed by BOC that Wickramasinghe had approved obtaining foreign syndicated loans amounting to $ 175 million, $ 140 million and $ 190 million from the Dubai based Mashreq Bank in 2011 and 2012, without the approval of the Cabinet, Finance Ministry and the Central Bank. These questionable foreign loans have been obtained in contravention to the Legal framework of BOC – The Bank of Ceylon Ordinance, the Banking Act No. 30 of 1988 and Monetary Law Act No. 58 of 1949, which does not authorise the Chairman and the BOC board to obtain foreign syndicate loans arbitrarily and without cabinet approval.
In 2023, former Minister and Member of Parliament Vasudeva Nanayakkara questioned in parliament regarding investigations into allegations of corruption committed by the former BOC Chairman and the Informatics Group. The documents produced by BOC, highlights that Wickramasinghe, during his tenure at the bank had in certain instances disregarded established tender procedures and ignored conflict-of -interest regulations, by securing only a board approval from the bank’s directors in order to award contracts to his own companies.
Attorney-at-law Swasthika Arulingam appeared for the People’s Movement Against Corruption before the RTI Commission which led to the disclosure of the documents by BOC.
Courtesy of the Daily FT