Same yardstick should be applied when investigating corruption/bribery

THE same way that the bond scam continues to haunt former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the container scam involving the release of a large number of containers from the Colombo Port without due clearance will haunt President Anura Kumara Disanayake and his Government for a long time to come.

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This week in Parliament, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mujibur Rahman tabled a report in Parliament of the committee that looked into the release of the containers which exposed serious lapses in the mandatory container scanning process.

The report, compiled by a committee appointed by the President, revealed that 37 high-risk red-labelled containers were released without being scanned, despite clear instructions such scanning was required.

In total, 103 containers that were due for mandatory screening were released without scans and two containers were released even before the official decision to permit such action was made on 18 January.