Uva Provincial Council Chief Secretary and former Additional Secretary to the Agriculture State Ministry, Mahesh Lasantha Gammanpila who was arrested yesterday by the Bribery Commission in connection with a financial fraud involving the import of organic fertiliser has been remanded.

Gammanpila’s arrest is linked to allegations over a controversial organic fertiliser import deal where while he was serving as Additional Secretary at the Agriculture State Ministry, he had instructed the re-opening of suspended Letters of Credit to facilitate the import of substandard organic fertiliser from a Chinese company named Qingdao Seawin Biotech in 2021.

He was arrested by officials of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) yesterday (28) on charges of incurring a loss of US$ 6.9 million to the Government through the re-opening of suspended Letters of Credit to import a substandard stock of organic fertiliser from the Chinese company in question which resulted in the payment of 75 percent of the first shipment stock of fertiliser amounting to US$ 6.9 million.

Having been produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Gammanpila was ordered to be remanded until May 05 by the Magistrate.

Mahesh Gammanpila, who is also serving as President of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association is a longstanding prominent State Official in the country’s civil service. His arrest has marked a significant development in the broader investigations carried out by the CIABOC into corruption and state sector management.

(dailynews.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by dailynews.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)