Bribery Commission Arrests Top SLAS Official Over 2021 - $6.7M Fertilizer Scandal 🇱🇰

⭕ Mahesh Gammanpila, ex-Additional Secretary to the Agriculture Ministry, current Uva Provincial Council Chief Secretary arrested by the Bribery Commission & remanded till May 5.

⭕ Arrest connected to the 2021 fertilizer deal—he allegedly ordered officials to reopen suspended LCs for substandard Chinese organic fertilizer shipment.

⭕ He served as Additional Director under then Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

⭕ The fertilizer shipment failed multiple lab tests & was ultimately rejected for poor quality.

⭕ The Ministry made critical errors in the LC setup—due to weak LC conditions, Sri Lanka was obligated to accept the shipment primarily based on document compliance, not quality. As a result, even though the shipment was rejected after physical inspection, the country was still required to make the payments.

⭕Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 at the time paid USD ~6.7M (~LKR 1,365M) to settle the dispute.