• Accusations of poor coordination between MEPA and AG’s Dept.
• Call for legal action to be expedited

In a new twist to the controversy over alleged bribery related to the MV X-Press Pearl disaster compensation process, it is reliably learnt that initial allegations have also been directed at some of the prosecutors involved in drafting the legal proceedings against the ship’s owners and insurer.

The Sunday Morning reliably learns that the initial allegations of bribery, including that of the alleged transfer of $ 250 million to the UK-listed accounts of one ‘Chamara Gunasekera,’ had been first shared with Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Gampaha District MP Ajith Mannapperuma.  

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, MP Mannapperuma confirmed that he had passed on the allegations to his Party Leader Sajith Premadasa and several others, including Minister Rajapakshe.

Mannapperuma, who is also the Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainable Development, said: “The message initially came to me via WhatsApp but the source was not clear to me. I didn’t believe this message because I didn’t find evidence to support it. However, I have forwarded it to several others.” 

Commenting on the content of the allegations received, MP Mannapperuma said the message had contained what Minister Rajapakshe had said in Parliament, while the allegation shared with him had also included allegations of possible linkages between the suspected individual who had allegedly received the said bribe and entities within the prosecutor’s office.  

“They keep on dragging this allegation like a white cloth to cover up their mistakes. This is only a small part of what we have lost, but we should not only go after the bribe and who sent it, we should also eliminate the motive by expediting the process,” MP Mannapperuma stressed.

Last week, it was reported that the Attorney General’s Department had filed legal action in Singapore to claim compensation for the damages caused by the X-Press Pearl maritime disaster in the seas of Sri Lanka. 

It is reported that the case was filed through a law firm in Singapore and the court will be informed about the compensation amount in the future. 

It is also stated that a detailed report has been called for from the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) to make the compensation claim.

As ascertained by Sri Lankan experts, the loss for environmental damage alone amounts to $ 6.4 billion. Sri Lanka has so far received a total of $ 7.85 million from the ship’s insurer in three tranches. 

In July 2021, the country received the very first payment of $ 3.6 million, and another $ 1.75 million in January this year. It again received $ 2.5 million this month.

Nevertheless, the authorities claimed that the total amount received so far was very low compared to the interim damage claim of $ 40 million sought by them in June 2021.

The X-Press Pearl was carrying 1,486 containers when it caught fire off Colombo on 20 May 2021.

Meanwhile, commenting on the issues pertaining to the X-Press Pearl controversy, Mannapperuma stressed that there had been no proper coordination between the MEPA and the Attorney General’s Department.

“MEPA should have directly instituted legal action against the ship owner company asking for compensation for the environmental damage caused by the disaster under the MEPA Act. Even if there is an involvement with the AG’s Department, there should be proper coordination between the two institutions. 

“MEPA conducts the technical research and other relevant processes and it is the AG’s Department that should take all these technical details and use them to compile legal materials to claim damages. But what we noticed is that there was no coordination between the two institutions.

“All legal experts and MEPA officials are asking it to file legal action in Sri Lanka and if the AG’s Department is acting against that, it should give explanations to MEPA. It would cost around $ 4.5 million to file legal action in Singapore and they have obtained the funds as a loan to institute legal action. This is a costly affair. 

“Also, the ship owner company has filed legal action in the UK asking to limit the compensation to £ 19.5 million, which is equivalent to around $ 25 million, but we are filing an action claiming $ 6.4 billion. If the case in the UK is won by the ship owner company, there will be no use in winning the damages claimed by us in Singapore. We will be able to cover the expenses but we won’t get the compensation for the environmental damages.

“On the other hand, as we were told by legal experts, if we file the action in Sri Lanka, we will not be bound by the decision taken in the UK. The compensation of $ 6.4 billion is only the damages calculated as at the end of last year, but we won’t be stopping the research. It will continue for more than five years and the damages will be calculated in the future too.” 

In the meantime, last week, allegations surfaced linking the mysterious individual – the alleged account holder ‘Chamara Gunasekera’ – to a person named Manju Nishshanka, who is said to be former State Minister of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal, and Public Sanitation Dr. Nalaka Godahewa’s campaign coordinator.

Nevertheless, in a media briefing held last week, Nishshanka denied all allegations levelled against him, claiming that they were baseless.

Meanwhile, when contacted by The Sunday Morning, Dr. Godahewa clarified that he was not the minister in charge or any responsible authority related to any of the matters connected to X-Press Pearl as he had vacated his ministerial portfolio a month after the X-Press Pearl disaster had occurred.

“I have nothing to do with the X-Press Pearl matter because when the X-Press Pearl compensation issue was going on, I was not the minister. The ship sank 23 months ago and for 22 months I was not the minister. What can I do about it? Asking me about Chamara Gunasekera is irrelevant. Chamara Gunasekera has to be someone else’s man. If this Chamara Gunasekera is a real person, he must be related or linked to the current ministers or current AG’s Department people,” Dr. Godahewa explained.

Commenting on the recent allegations levelled against him by Minister Rajapakshe in Parliament, Godahewa claimed that 99.9% of the public had misunderstood what the Minister said in Parliament as he had been referring to the MV New Diamond crude oil tanker incident. “Even in that, what he said was not true and I have explained that too,” he said. 

“They say Chamara Gunasekera is one Manju Nishshanka. He showed his passport and driving licence on Friday at a media briefing which I watched and he said he had only one name and questioned how he could open an account under a different name in a country like the UK. This is also a false allegation levelled against him by one website,” he stressed.

Last week, Minister Rajapakshe, dropping a bombshell in Parliament regarding the container ship MV X-Press Pearl, revealed that a sum of $ 250 million had been credited to the bank account of one Chamara Gunasekera as a bribe by the operator of the ship X-Press Pearl to prevent the Sri Lankan Government from securing damages.

While revealing the names with account numbers, the Minister said he could not take responsibility and that he did not know whether this was evidence or not. He added that he had relayed the information to the Police and it was up to the Police to ascertain whether it could be used as evidence.

He also said that an investigation had already been launched by the Police in this regard. 

Last week the CID confirmed that it had initiated an inquiry into the information submitted by the Minister of Justice.

However, all attempts made by The Sunday Morning to contact Minister Rajapakshe and MEPA Chairman Asela Rekawa over the matter proved futile.