The Colombo High Court has sentenced a labour officer attached to the Haputale District Labour Office to six years in prison after finding him guilty of soliciting and accepting a Rs. 15,000 bribe from a poultry farm owner in Wellawaya in 2009, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) announced.
The accused, named in court papers as Amudamana Arachchige Nimal Rohana Somawardana, was convicted on three counts under Case No. HCB 2116/2015. The conviction followed a complaint received on September 2, 2009. High Court Judge Mohomad Mihail delivered judgment at Colombo High Court No. 06 on April 23, finding the accused guilty on all three charges. A six-year prison term was imposed for each charge, to be served concurrently, together with a Rs. 5,000 fine per charge and an additional penalty equivalent to the bribe amount. Assistant Director-General Thanuja Bandara prosecuted the case for CIABOC.
The case illustrates the long arc of Sri Lanka’s anti-bribery prosecutions: almost 17 years elapsed between the original complaint from the poultry farm owner in Moneragala district and the eventual High Court verdict.
CIABOC has continued to pursue historical bribery cases in parallel with a wave of high-profile new prosecutions, including the arrest of a Health Ministry legal officer over a Rs. 4.1 million bribery allegation, the Rs. 30,000 Mullaitivu hospital case, and ongoing investigations involving the Speaker of Parliament and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s asset declarations.
The Wellawaya conviction adds to a growing number of completed CIABOC prosecutions delivered by the Colombo High Court in recent months, as the commission works through a backlog of older files alongside current-cycle arrests.
