Proposed amendments have scaled back coverage of state-linked firms
By The Pulseline News Desk
The Government has moved to significantly strengthen Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption regime by introducing mandatory triple-value financial penalties on assets acquired through corruption, requiring convicted offenders to fully repay losses caused to the State, and making bail considerably more difficult in major bribery cases.
However, the proposed amendments to the Anti-Corruption Act, No. 9 of 2023 has reportedly narrowed the law’s reach by excluding hundreds of employees and directors of partially state-owned companies from the definition of “public officials”, a move likely to attract scrutiny as Parliament prepares to debate the Bill.
The Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill was gazetted recently.
Triple financial penalty
One of the most far-reaching changes requires courts to impose an additional financial penalty of not less than three times the value of property acquired or converted through corruption.
The amendment further requires courts to order convicted offenders to pay an amount equivalent to the entire financial loss suffered by the Government, where corruption has resulted in losses to the State.
The existing law provides for rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine of up to Rs. 1 million or both, while leaving compensation and recovery of losses largely to judicial discretion.
The proposed amendments therefore make financial recovery a mandatory part of sentencing.
Bail only in exceptional circumstances
The Bill has also tightens bail provisions for serious corruption cases.
Where a suspect is accused of soliciting, accepting or offering a bribe of Rs. 100,000 or more, or causing a Government loss or obtaining an unlawful benefit of Rs. 500,000 or more, bail may only be granted by the High Court in exceptional circumstances.
The monetary threshold must be certified by the Director-General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
Under the principal Act, although corruption offences are classified as non-bailable, magistrates may grant bail under the Bail Act.
The amendment removes that avenue for higher-value offences.
Asset declaration changes
The Bill has also introduced several changes to the asset declaration regime.
While retaining the requirement for CIABOC to publish redacted asset declarations on its website, the amendment makes it an offence to use those publicly available declarations for purposes other than submission to authorised officers or institutions designated under the Act.
Anyone convicted of misusing a redacted declaration faces a fine of up to Rs. 100,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
The amendment has also expanded the categories of personal information that must be concealed before publication.
In addition to addresses, property locations, bank account details, dates of birth, NIC and passport numbers already protected under the principal Act, the Bill has now covered any other identification number recognised by the relevant authorities.
Cohabitants excluded
Another notable amendment is reportedly the removal of the requirement for public officials to disclose the assets and liabilities of persons living in the same household.
The 2023 Act required declarations to include the assets of spouses, dependent children, other dependants and cohabitants who had shared a common household with the declarant for at least six months.
The proposed amendment repeals the provision relating to cohabitants, with the Government stating the change is intended to better safeguard individual privacy.
Narrower anti-corruption net
The amendment has also redrawn the boundaries of institutions covered by the anti-corruption law.
Under the existing legislation, any company in which the Government or a public corporation owns 25 per cent or more of the shares is classified as a “scheduled institution”.
The amendment has raised that threshold to not less than 50 per cent.
As a result, companies in which the State owns between 25 and 49.9 per cent will no longer fall within that category.
However, the change could have wider implications because directors, governors and employees of scheduled institutions are deemed to be public officials under the Act.
By increasing the ownership threshold, those serving in companies where the Government holds only a minority stake will no longer be treated as public officials for the purposes of corruption offences under the legislation.
The amendment therefore reduces the number of state-linked enterprises – and their employees – that fall within the Act’s anti-corruption framework.
Mixed package
Taken together, the amendments represent a mixed overhaul of Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption law.
They significantly strengthen punitive measures through mandatory recovery of state losses, triple-value penalties on corrupt assets and tougher bail provisions for serious offences.
At the same time, they reduce the scope of institutions and individuals covered by the Act while introducing additional privacy protections for asset declarations.
The proposed legislation is expected to come under close examination in Parliament, particularly over whether the tougher enforcement measures outweigh the narrowing of the law’s coverage over state-linked entities.
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