President refuses extension for PM’s ranking bodyguard

President Maithripala Sirisena has said there will be no extensions of service to police officers who retire.

The issue came into focus after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had recommended an extension of service to a ranking member of his personal security detail.

President Sirisena, under whom the Police Department now functions, has said he had decided as a matter of policy not to grant extensions. This, he has explained, is to ensure that junior rank officers have the opportunity to rise to the top.

Weeks earlier, President Sirisena presented a Cabinet Memorandum to extend by a year the services of Senior DIG Ravi Waidyalankara, the then head of the Financial Crimes Investigation Bureau (FCID), but withdrew it later. He directed the Ministry of Defence to cancel Mr Waidyalankara’s one-year contract due to expire on March 30. The Ministry in turn conveyed the request to the National Police Commission which executed the directive.

DIG Mevan Silva is now being strongly tipped to become the head of the FCID. He is currently head of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) which functions directly under Police Chief Pujith Jayasundera. At present, the FCID is being overseen by Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne, who is in charge of the Criminal Investigation Division.

The immediate impact of President Sirisena’s new ruling will be on SDIG Seneviratne and Senior DIG W.M. Wickremesinghe, now in charge of the Central Range based in Kandy. The latter was earlier in charge of the Presidential Security Division (PSD), both under then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and thereafter President Sirisena.

SDIG Seneviratne is to retire on April 20 whilst Wickremesinghe will follow the next day, April 21.

The very last term extension of one year was given to SDIG M.R. Latiff, head of the Police Special Task Force (STF), their commando arm.

Police Chief Jayasundera will remain in office till March 20, 2020 when he is due to retire.