Presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Namal Rajapaksa stated that the slogan of catching thieves won’t be repeated on political stages under their government.
Addressing an election rally in Matale, Rajapaksa charged that the same group of people who wasted taxpayer money during the Yahapalana government by traveling around the world and auditing accounts, have now come forward as presidential candidates who promise to catch thieves.
They audited accounts at the expense of the taxpayer, only to find that there were no illicit earnings in the Rajapaksas’ accounts, he said.
“Nowadays, many presidents come to catch thieves. Even during the Yahapalana government, they did the same. They formed a committee, gathered everyone who spoke about it, and went after thieves, filing case after case. But in every case, we were acquitted and freed,” Rajapaksa said.
“The current president, who was the prime minister of the Yahapalana government at the time, made a clear statement. He said they searched around the world for the Rajapaksas’ accounts and found no evidence of illicit earnings. That’s why they were freed from the cases. But all those investigations were funded with public money. Perhaps they even took the Rs. 12.5 billion they borrowed for that,” Rajapaksa speculated.
The SLPP presidential candidate pointed out that the slogan of catching thieves is nothing more than a political catchphrase created to deceive the public for personal gain.
“It was purely a political slogan made up for the stage. They even searched our toilets at home looking for the ‘stolen goods.’ They even came to see a toy helicopter in my mother’s Montessori school, claiming it was a real helicopter. These are the same people who misled the public with lies and now seek to govern the country,” he said.
Through a technology-driven procurement process with transparent and competitive tender procedures, corruption and fraud will no longer be election campaign slogans, Rajapaksa said.
“We are removing corruption and fraud from the election stage. We are doing this by introducing technology, bringing in tender procedures, and establishing competitive tender systems under a procurement process, with transparency and quality safeguarded through the use of technology,”
Noting the importance of making global agreements to protect the future economy for the next generation, Rajapaksa said that he is committed to creating 2 million jobs over the next decade in sectors such as information technology, manufacturing, services, and overseas employment. (Newswire)
