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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AtulaSiriwardane" data-source="post: 4216754" data-attributes="member: 120286">Wijepala admits he did not see seriousness of fraud<img src="http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/TagImg/NO%20TAG.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />                                                                                                                                                                 <img src="http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/ArticleImages/vizs4z55krjrih55rpofk555_dm_20090327_11.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />By Sumaiya RizviFormer Deputy Commissioner Value Added Tax (VAT) branch, A. A. Wijepala, admitted that he did not see the seriousness in Rs. 2 Billion fraudulent refunds made by the VAT branch enough to inform the Police or to even carry out an internal audit. He said this while testifying at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the alleged fraudulent VAT refund of the Inland Revenue Department. The VAT fraud became known for the first time during his term at the VAT branch.“I did not know the seriousness of it, I didn’t think that it was my duty to inform the Police, and I was expecting the Commissioner General’s advice to deal with matters which have now turned out to be fraud,” Wijepala said. According to him in May 2002, the VAT branch came to know of unlawful refunds made to non-existent companies amounting to Rs. 2 Billion and as the head of the VAT branch, he did not instruct his sub ordinates to further investigate the matter. “After you found out about the fraud you didn’t do anything significant to deal with the fraud,” Chairman of the Commission M. P. Paranagama said. You had failed to question suspects within the VAT branch, did not try to find the files that had gone missing with regard to the fraudulent companies, there is also no solid evidence to prove that you brought the fraud to the notice of the former Commissioner General Susilan, Paranagama added.I made a note of the fraudulent companies and gave it to Commissioner General Susilan although I knew that he was not going to take any action to investigate the irregularities as he was  obligated to the former senior assessor of the VAT branch Gnanasiri Z. Jayathilake, who helped the Commissioner General to rise to this position when Jayathilake was promoted to the post of Deputy Commissioner, the witness said.When the Chairman of the Commission Paranagama questioned the witness he denied that he was a friend of Jayathilakes’ and said he never visited him in the prison nor did he sneak a mobile phone sim card to Jayathilake in prison. “Jayathilake is the mastermind behind the whole financial scam at the VAT Department,” the witness said.Senior assessors Ananda Wicremesinghe Ambepitiya and Jayathilake are in prison and are the main accused in the VAT fraud. “When Jayathilake took leave to visit his wife in New Zealand after the fraud came to light and didn’t return at the end of his period of leave I became suspicious as to his motives,” the witness said. “When a robbery has taken place in your home and if you don’t trust the Police the least you should do is find out how the robbers got in and make sure the crime is not repeated,” Commissioner J. Senaratna said. Rs. 2 Billion is not a small amount of money and it was refunded hundreds of millions at a time, during Wijepala’s tenure as head of the branch.The Chairman of the Commission is retired High Court Judge M.P. Paranagama, while the other members are J. Senaratna and Michael Fernando. Damith Thotawatte, a senior counsel, is assisting the commission.____________________________________________He must be telling the truth... Many Govt servents are like that... They are sleep-walking being slaves of uneducated political culprits who knows well how to cheat the ignorant people and get votes and exploit the Treasury.</blockquote>

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