FMR. IGP UNAWARE OF NATIONAL DEFENCE POLICY
▪ There was a communication gap within political and security heads who served in the former government
Former IGP Pujith Jayasundara was not aware about the National Defence Policy which had been drafted in 2016 by former ‘Yahapalana’ government, it was yesterday informed at the PCOI probing Easter Sunday attacks.
Earlier it was informed to the Commission that the National Defence Policy was being drafted with the assistance of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL), which comes under the purview of the Defence Ministry. Responding to a question made by a Commissioner, former IGP Jayasundara said that he was not aware of the National Defence Policy or the institute of National Security Studies. Commissioner :“there was a DIG participating at the meetings conducted by the INSSSL,WERE you aware of this?” Former IGP:“I was not aware of a DIG participating in these meetings. commissioner :“were you aware of a report being submitted as a Monthlythreat Forecast on National Security by the following institute ?”
Former IGP:“I was not aware of such reports”. The witness further added that there was a communication gap within political and security heads who served in the former government. He said that the Defence Secretary who served in the period between 2016 and 2017 had failed to inform him regarding the creation of an institution for National Security studies.
“Through an earlier evidence which was led before this Commission I got to know that, the former‘ ya hap alan a’ government heads didn’t consider some threat assessment reports submitted by the Institution for National Security studies, ”he said. The first draft of the National Defence Policy was prepared in 2016 by a team of military officers with the assistance of the INSSSL. It was informed to the Commission that the policy was submitted to then Secretary of Defence Karunasena Hettiarachchi, who served in initiating the process, but due to his sudden transfer,the government had failed to take it forward. Further,it was informed that the same policy was handed over to the subsequent Defence Secretaries Kapila Waidyaratne and Hemasiri Fernando.