Secretary to the President, Austin Fernando says criminal investigators face many challenges during the course of their work.
Emphasizing the importance of the tasks entrusted to criminal investigation officials, the most senior government official said investigators’ task is of immense importance to the quest for justice and fight crimes, corruption and frauds.
Outlining the difficulties and challenges faced by the officials, Mr. Fernando said when a political regime changes, the criminal investigators conducting inquiries into allegations of corruption and fraud run into hurdles as sometimes frauds were committed with alleged involvement of some in the bureaucracy, police, law enforcement services, judicial process and media.
He said this addressing the Regional High Level Meeting towards the establishment of a Regional Platform for Sharing of Criminal intelligence in South Asia.
The meeting held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel on Nov. 23-24 is co-hosted by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Law & Order and Southern Development, and the UNODC Regional Office for South Asia, with the support of Sri Lanka’s Presidential Task Force on Drug Prevention (PTFDP).
The specific objective of the meeting is to consider and agree on the viability and structure of a South Asian Regional Intelligence Coordination Centre (SARICC), a regional platform for sharing of criminal intelligence to prevent and combat transnational organized crime in South Asia.
Transnational Organized Crime issues have multi-lateral and global dimensions which require global and regional cooperation to counter them.
Experts from six member states, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Secretary to the Ministry of Law & Order and Southern Development, Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya, Director of the Presidential Task Force for Drug Prevention Dr. Samantha Kumara Kithalawaarachchi, and officials of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) participated in this meeting.
