Call for Parliamentary debate on Bond Commission findings

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has requested for a debate in Parliament regarding the findings of the President Commission of Inquiry on the issuance of Central Bank treasury bonds, UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera said.

Meanwhile the Joint Opposition and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have also called for Parliament to be convened immediately to discuss the recommendations of the report. 

In a letter addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, the JVP said that as per the president’s special statement the commission has recommended the amendment of several legislations pertaining to the governing of the Central Bank and for the government to reclaims the lost money. 

The first session of the Parliament for the year 2018 is scheduled to be held on January 23, however the party says that there is a grave need for the Parliament to convene soon in light of the recent events. 

Hence, the JVP requests the Speaker to hold a party leaders’ meeting in order to convene Parliament sessions as soon as possible.  

The final report of the commission was handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena on December 30, 2017.

The Commission’s Chairman Justice K.T. Chitrasiri handed over the report and two other members of the Commission, Justice P S Jayawardene and retired Deputy Auditor General, V Kandasamy were present.

Making public the findings of the Presidential Bond Commission report on television yesterday (3), the President said that the commission has held the former governor of the central bank Arjuna Mahendren guilty of leaking sensitive market information. 

He said that the panel has also recommended the prosecution of the countrys former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake on bribery charges.

In what was dubbed by the Opposition as the “biggest financial scam in Sri Lankas history”, the commission probed a series of rigged bond auctions, in February 2015 and March 2016, conducted by the central bank under Mahendran in which his son-in-laws company Perpetual Treasuries allegedly made thumping profits by buying securities at low prices.

The probe panel recommended that Parliament must take speedy action to recover the losses through a new legislation.

“I would not hesitate to take steps to recover the loss of (Sri Lankan) Rs 11,145 million and take legal action against the offenders and punish them,” Sirisena said in his televised speech.