Former minister Harin Fernando has declared that he does not believe the then Cabinet of Ministers is responsible for the incident involving the procurement of substandard human immunoglobulin bottles.

He made these comments today (22) while speaking to reporters when he arrived to give a statement to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding the relevant incident.

On November 12, the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court had ordered to record the statements of 18 then cabinet ministers regarding the alleged importation of substandard human immunoglobulin bottles.

The Attorney General’s Department had informed the court that statements must be obtained from 18 people, including former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, former ministers Tiran Alles, Mahinda Amaraweera, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Harin Fernando, Roshan Ranasinghe and Nimal Siripala, who were members of the cabinet which approved the cabinet document presented by then health minister Keheliya Rambukwella for the importation of the controversial drugs in question.

Apart from Harin Fernando, the rest of the former ministers had appeared at the CID yesterday (21) to give their statements, and Fernando arrived today (22) to record his statement.

In response to a query on whether he believed the government of the day was responsible for the incident involving the controversial medicine procurement, Fernando said:

“I don’t think so, because at least 60 to 70 papers are submitted to the government every day. Usually, the secretaries of the respective ministries prepare these papers and submit them, and the minister then presents them to the government. Once submitted, the finance ministry makes its recommendations. This is the normal process. This has never happened in the history of Sri Lanka. But we hope to respect the court and provide the information we know.”