28 March, 2024

Blog

COPE To Meet On Wednesday To Study AG Report On Central Bank Bond Issue

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to study the Auditor General’s report on the Central Bank bond issue.

Sunil Handunneththi - COPE Chairman

Sunil Handunneththi – COPE Chairman

The Auditor General was unable to complete the report earlier, as the Central Bank including it’s Governor Arjuna Mahendran and Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri, who is tipped to take over Mahendran’s position, had refused to give information pertaining to the bond transactions.

However, in early June, COPE summoned Mahendran and his deputy governors and ordered them to provide all information on the bond transactions within two weeks to the AG.

“The report is now complete, and it will be taken up for discussion on Wednesday,” a source told Colombo Telegraph.

The COPE will also determine if Mahendran is innocent amidst allegations of a massive bond scandal last year and this year.

On Friday, Mahendran announced that until the COPE clears his name, he will not seek a second term as Central Bank Governor.

His term is schedule to end on 30th June 2016.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Latest comments

  • 3
    2

    COPE must examine whether the Auditor General has got answers to the following questions from Central Bank officials before they finalise the report.

    1.1 By permitting BOC to submit a Bid on behalf of Perpetual Treasuries after bidding was officially closed, giving them the opportunity to secure more than 1Bn worth of Bonds, haven’t the Public Debt Dept. done wrong or injustice to all other Primary Dealers depriving similar opportunity to submit higher Bids ?
    Was it not prudent on the part of Officials of Public Debt Dept to inquire from BOC/Perpetual Treasuries as to why they have submitted a bid for a much higher value after the official closure of bids when in fact Central Bank needed only Rs. 1 Bn as per their official notification?

    1.2 Didn’t the Head of Public Debt Dept. obtained permission of the Governor (who was reported to be in his Dept. premises) before acceding to the request of BOC made on behalf of another Dealer ?

    1.3 Didn’t the Governor who was reported to be on the Trading Floor/Public Debt Department at the particular time inquired as to which Primary Dealer got BOC to submit a Bid in this manner which is unusual?

    1.4 Even if the Governor has not posed the question, shouldn’t the Head of Public Debt Dept think it was necessary that he should keep the Governor informed in view of a clear case of conflict of interest involving a bid made on behalf of the Company where governor’s Son in Law had business interest?

    1.5 Shouldn’t this be the course of action taken when the Governor was said to be present at the Public Debt Dept. to inform that there is an enhanced requirement of Funds and request them that a sum of Rs.20 Bn be raised instead of 1 Bn they originally requested from Primary Dealers.

    1.6 Shouldn’t it be the position Public Debt Department officials take when a private Company sought to secure Bonds over and above the Bid of BOC itself which is a Government entity and which agreed to submit the bid probably backed by a credit facility.

    1.7 As to why Public Debt Dept. in fairness to all the Primary Dealers limit the maximum allocation to one single entity to Rs. 1 Bn with an interest rate closer to the indicative Rate of 9.75% and raised the deficit within a few days after all the Primary Dealers are duly informed of the enhanced requirement? Public Debt Dept cannot forget the supervisory role to be played by the Central Bank and disregard the loss of opportunity for Govt Banks BOC,PB, NSB and other entities such as EPF and ETF.

    Can the Treasury take up the position that it was not possible to do so as they have never defaulted on timely payments for ongoing construction projects, whereas they took over 6 months to pay Govt. registered suppliers on account of food supplies to Armed Forces during the war ? There are many other instances where payments and salaries were delayed due to delayed fund releases from the Treasury in the past.

    Piyasiri

    • 3
      2

      COPE should be aware that Arjuna Mahendran and Ranil are trying to distract attention from the corrupt at the Central Bank, by exaggerating the impact of BREXIT on Sri Lanka economy.

      Why is Ranil so obsessed with BREXIT?

      Has he not heard that ASIAN ECONOMIES are increasingly DE-LINKED from the European Economy because Asian economies let by China and India are leading global growth and are massive economies today?

      Ranil and Mahendran are using BREXIT as an excuse to distract people from the massive economic crisis due to political corruption in Sri Lanka and of course Mahendran’s corruption for which he must be prosecuted.

      Why is Ranil so obsessed by a declining and breaking up Britain? Are there no more pressing problems such as tracing down the Billions stashed in off shore accounts by tax dogers revealed in the Panama Papers and other investigations and recovering the funds to pay off some of the gigantic NATIONAL DEBT OF SRI LANKA?

      The Central Bank needs to come up with the road map and strategy for this rather than BREXIT – which will not affect Asian economies very much despite the hype because Asia is the growth region of the world at this time.

      Rather than asking the Central Bank to map out a BREXIT strategy we need a strategy to address debt burden, and recover looted funds from Sri Lanka!

  • 4
    3

    Ranjan Ramanayaka is a member of COPE who will decide the Singaporean’s competences , especially the Bond dealing expertise soon.

    Kirielle another member and the Whiz Kid with the PhD have already declared that his skill set. I mean Singapaorean’s skill set is unmatchable ,

    “Brit Exit has cancelled all benefits of the GSP Plus” says the Singaporean.

    And warns of at least two years of hardship for the Yahapalana Economy,

    That is in the latest CB report to his mate Batalanada Ranil.

    Has that saved the Singaporean’s ass, regardless of what Handunetti has in his Report?.

    So much for Batalanada and Bodhi Sira bending over to the the EU, US and Cameron.

    Now, how can Batalanada Ranil takes reins off the Singaporean and put a boy like Eran to do a man’s job.

    Wonder whether the Singaporean wrote that speech which Batalanada delivered to the Colombo elite Yesterday, where Ranil said thathe is connecting with 4 Asian countries to replace EU and Britain.

    And bring the Bacon to Yahapalana suckers.

    I know China is the only country with a bit of dosh to give Batalanada a full Bacon.

    But will they open their coffers to a lying PM, who denigrated them , heaped mega insults on them like turning their marvellous engineering feats like Mattala AP in to paddy warehouse for Yahapalana Bodhi Sira;s brothers Rice Crop..

    And turn that equally marvellous Hambantota Harbour in to a Fishing inlet perhaps to let the Kerala Fishers have their R & R.

    Hope the Chinese Ambassador reads CT.

  • 1
    0

    Judging by the composition of the COPE which has a heavy weight-age in favour of the UNP-SLFP coalition it appears that it is a difficult task on the part of its Chairman to furnish an unbiased report. As the MPs of these two parties got together to dilute the 19th Amendment and the venom of the Constitutional Councils, they will be bent towards protecting the interest of the PM of the coalition Govt. Even the few MPs of SLFP-JO will be bending their back to support the maneuvers of UNP MPs as they expect a return favour in covering up of their own misdeeds.
    If Ranil or his Ministers/MPs with blind faith use undue influence on AG or on the COPE that will not be different to Mahinda who had a heep of files under his arm pits with no investigations carried out.
    Finally, Mahendran’s future should be determined only after an Independent Inquiry by a Committee comprising Retired Judges or eminent persons acceptable to both Govt/Opposition and the Civil Society Movements. Ramawickrama

  • 0
    0

    since mahendran is hollering all the time about the COPE report,it must be rigged.That is why the chairman said he will have to resign if COPE members are influenced further.The chairman is only one person and can’t stop it.

  • 0
    0

    Lets hope that sanity will prevail and Ranil will avoid the Bond Issue becoming his “WATER GATE”
    Piyal

Leave A Comment

Comments should not exceed 200 words. Embedding external links and writing in capital letters are discouraged. Commenting is automatically disabled after 5 days and approval may take up to 24 hours. Please read our Comments Policy for further details. Your email address will not be published.