Ex-COO of RADA arrested for tsunami fund fraud

The former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Sri Lanka Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA), Saliya Wickramasuriya, has been arrested over alleged fraud in tsunami housing funds. 

He is charged with cheating Rs 169 million from funds received to build houses for people in the North and East, who lost their homes due to the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

The suspect was arrested this morning at his residence in Kollupitiya by police officers attached to the Special Investigations Unit.

He has been remanded until May 12 after being produced before the Acting Colombo Fort Magistrate, police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

Wickramasuriya had also served as Chairman of the Board of Investment (BOI) before being appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA), which was overseeing post tsunami rebuilding work.

In 2006, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), a post he held till September 2008. From November 2011, Wickramasuriya has been serving as the Director General of Petroleum Resource Development Secretariat (PRDS).