The Government has issued an Extraordinary Gazette introducing several amendments to the Anti-Corruption Act, No. 9 of 2023, aimed at strengthening penalties for corruption-related offences and revising certain legal provisions.
Under the proposed amendments, courts will be required to impose a fine of not less than three times the value of any property found to have been acquired through corruption. In addition, offenders will be liable to pay a further fine equivalent to the total financial loss caused to the State.
The amendments also introduce stricter bail provisions for serious bribery and corruption offences. Suspects accused of soliciting or accepting bribes of Rs. 100,000 or more, or causing a financial loss of Rs. 500,000 or more to the Government, will be eligible for bail only through the High Court and only under exceptional circumstances.
The Gazette further includes new provisions to strengthen the confidentiality of asset declarations. The unlawful use of information contained in an asset declaration will constitute an offence punishable by a fine of up to Rs. 100,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both. The requirement to declare the assets of persons living together has also been removed as part of measures aimed at protecting personal privacy.
In addition, the amendments revise the threshold for entities covered under the Anti-Corruption Act. While the previous law applied to companies in which the Government held at least 25% of the shares, the new amendment raises that threshold to 50%. As a result, directors and employees of companies in which the Government holds a minority stake of between 25% and 49.9% will no longer be classified as public officials under the Act.
