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Sri Lanka’s environment minister resigns after arrest over immunoglobulin procurement scandal during his tenure as health minister
Sri Lanka’s environment minister resigns after arrest over immunoglobulin procurement scandal during his tenure as health minister
Rambukwella was arrested on January 2 after over 10 hours of questioning by the police’s crime investigation department.
“Rambukwella had sent his letter of resignation to the President. The President's Office said that the letter of resignation was accepted by the President, and that it was directed for publication via government gazette,” NewsFirst.lk, a news portal said.
Thereafter, the minister, who was on remand custody, was moved to the prison hospital due to an illness, it said.
One of Sri Lanka’s opposition parties, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) had threatened to bring a new no-confidence motion against Rambukwella to remove him from his Environment Minister portfolio. The Sri Lankan Parliament is slated to meet on Wednesday.
“The SJB says Rambukwella cannot hold any Ministerial post after he was arrested and remanded over a scam in the Health Ministry,” Daily Mirror had reported then.
Earlier, a large number of complaints had been received from hospitals since mid-last year on patient reactions to the drug, imported under the Indian credit line to help Sri Lanka tide over the forex and the economic crisis.
In December 2023, at least six high-ranking health officials were arrested in the same case. It was alleged that orders had been placed for 22,500 vials of human immunoglobulin IV 5g under forged documentation under the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA).
Before that, in October, an Indian firm based in Gujarat denied claims from Sri Lankan health authorities that it had supplied a stock of immunoglobulin.
Immunoglobulins (Ig) or antibodies are glycoproteins produced by plasma cells.
Out of the full order, over 3,000 vials had been supplied and the health authorities had distributed them to hospitals between July and September last year.
Rambukwella, as the then health minister, had made complaints with the police’s crime investigation department saying the drug had been cleared from customs based on a forged waiver of registration from the NMRA.
Then, in September, he survived a no-trust motion in Parliament against him moved by the opposition that highlighted corruption and inefficiency in drugs procuring by the state.
With the arrest of senior officials, pressure mounted on the arrest of Rambukwella, who the health trade unions alleged was the mastermind of the scam.
Rambukwella was later removed from the health ministry.
The arrest of the minister came after weeks of public agitation for his arrest by trade unions and activists.
