SC sets December 12 for hearing of petition seeking order suspending A/L investigation – The Island

Sri Lanka must be vigilant about the Adani power project on the island, experts say, after federal prosecutors in New York charged group chairman Gautam Adani and seven others with multiple fraud charges, according to a report published by The Hindu yesterday.

In Sri Lanka, cases of significant corruption in the country have often been exposed in other jurisdictions, according to Nishan De Mel, executive director of Verité Research, a Colombo-based think tank.

He was referring to the allegations of bribery in the purchase of Airbus aircraft by Sri Lankan Airlines, which came to light a few years ago in a British-based investigation, and to the Pandora Papers in which names of local politicians and businessmen were came forward.

“It is very important for Sri Lanka to redouble its efforts against corruption to ensure that we are protected from corrupt deals,” he told The Hindu.

After news of the Adani Group’s alleged bribery scheme emerged on Thursday, many citizens and activists in Sri Lanka took to social media and called for greater scrutiny of the Group’s power project in the island.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who won the presidency in September, and his National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, which won a historic two-thirds majority in the November 14 general election, have pledged to root out corruption.

Days before his election victory, Mr Dissanayake vowed to cancel the “corrupt Adani deal” if his government came to power. Subsequently, the Foreign Minister and Cabinet spokesperson of the interim government said that the government would “review” the project after the parliamentary elections.

The International Monetary Fund has also underlined the need to address “corruption vulnerabilities” in its ongoing program with Sri Lanka.

Adani Green Energy is investing $442 million in a wind energy project in Mannar and Pooneryn in northern Sri Lanka. Ever since the former Gotabaya Rajapaksa government secured the company in 2022, the project has remained controversial. The main political opposition accused the conglomerate of “backdoors” in the absence of an open tender.

The same year, a top official of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) told a parliamentary panel that the project was given to the Adani Group after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘put pressure’ on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The official subsequently resigned after retracting his original statement.

Regardless, the Ranil Wickremesinghe government went ahead with the project, amid questions from corruption watchdogs. As the Adani Group was thrust into the global spotlight in early 2023 and its shares plummeted in the wake of US short seller Hindenburg accusing it of pulling off the “biggest scam in corporate history”, the then minister said of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Office, Ali Sabry, said the Wickremesinghe government was “very confident” in the future of the project, which it saw as a “government-to-government” agreement with India.

Earlier this year, environmental activists and residents of Mannar went to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, challenging the project on the grounds of its potential environmental impact and “lack of transparency”. The case was taken up by a five-member Bench and the next hearing is scheduled for March 18 and 19, 2025, according to sources familiar with the proceedings.

The sustainable energy project is one of two projects that the Adani Group is implementing in Sri Lanka. The other major investment is the Adani Ports-led container terminal project in Colombo. In November 2023, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced a $553 million investment in the project, a $700 million joint venture between Adani Ports, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells Holdings .