Web of corruption exposed at BOC involving former Chairman Gamini Wickramasinghe

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.

- By T. FAROOK THAJUDEEN

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.