Senior Defence Official In Hot Waters Over Avant Garde's Consignment Of Arms

D.M.S. Dissanayake, Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Defence and the officer in charge of Civil Security, is now in hot waters over the controversy involving  Avant Garde Maritime Services Limited.

Dissanayake has written a letter to the Navy Commander to release the vessel containing a consignment of arms for Avant Garde Maritime Services Limited. It is learnt that the government is investigating as to how Dissanayake issued a letter seeking the release of the vessel, leading to a fresh controversy surrounding the private security firm. The senior defence official had sent the letter to the Navy Commander on October 06.

President Maithripala Sirisena, at the last Cabinet meeting, ordered to launch a full-scale probe on the vessel and those involved in the controversy. Some senior ministers. at the Cabinet meeting, had alleged some powerful figures of the government and senior officials were helping the private security firm which had close links to former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The vessel is presently in the Navy's detention and authorities are conducting inquiries.

Our attempts to contact Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena in this regard failed as our repeated phone calls went unanswered.