Former minister Johnston Fernando was arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption on Friday morning, after arriving at the Commission to give a statement.

All four newsrooms carrying the arrest agree on that sequence: he attended voluntarily and was taken into custody once there. Ada Derana, Daily Mirror and Hiru News each described the matter only as “an ongoing investigation”.

The allegation

NewsFirst is the only outlet that says what the case concerns.

The investigation relates to the procurement of chairs for the Mahinda Rajapaksa Auditorium in Polgolla, where authorities allege the prescribed procurement process was not followed. The alleged loss to the government is Rs. 7,973,114.

CIABOC said Fernando was arrested on allegations of committing the offence of corruption in connection with that case, NewsFirst reported. The inquiry is focused on the alleged irregularities in the purchase and the resulting loss to the State.

The other three outlets do not carry the Polgolla detail, the sum, or the corruption allegation. That single-sourcing should be read with the usual caution, though the figure is specific and attributed directly to the Commission.

A separate matter from Namal Rajapaksa’s

Fernando arrived at CIABOC about half an hour after Namal Rajapaksa, who attended the same Commission on Friday morning to give a statement on the SriLankan Airlines Airbus deal. Hiru had reported his arrival separately before the arrest was confirmed.

The two appearances are not connected. Rajapaksa’s summons concerns alleged bribery in the 2013 acquisition of Airbus aircraft; Fernando’s arrest concerns auditorium furniture procurement. No outlet has suggested a link between them.

Fernando’s other proceedings

The arrest adds to a substantial existing caseload. The Court of Appeal in August ordered his CWE corruption trial to resume. He was summoned over alleged illegal assets in May alongside Pavithra Wanniarachchi, and questioned by the Illegal Assets Investigation Division in June. He spent four months in remand before being granted bail in the Sathosa lorry case in April.

Update, September 4 evening

Fernando was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court and granted bail on two sureties of Rs. 2.5 million, with a travel ban. CIABOC opposed release and asked for remand; the Magistrate ruled there were insufficient grounds to refuse bail.

A second suspect has also been named: Hemantha Lalith de Silva, owner of Design Point (Pvt) Ltd, the company the chairs were allegedly bought from. The Rs. 7,973,114.50 loss is attributed specifically to the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau. The case was fixed for further hearing on 17 November.

Still unreported: when the procurement took place and who authorised it.

Sources