Ranil Wickremesinghe, stating that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Central Bank bond issues had revealed that Rs 4 trillion had been auctioned through bond issues between 2008 and 2015, said that he is awaiting investigation from the media on the related losses. He said that Rs 10,000 billion would have to be paid by the Government over the next 25 years.

Wickremesinghe made these observations while addressing a meeting of United National Party (UNP) candidates for the forthcoming local government elections at Campbell Park, Borella today (January 7).

The UNP leader, while alluding to ‘various ideas published in the media’ regarding the Central Bank bond scam post-2015, did not acknowledge any wrongdoing by party loyalists and personal friends who have been named and shamed in the CoI report.

Wickremesinghe appointed the former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, a personal friend, as an advisor after the President choose not to extend his term considering the details of the bond scam that had come to light by that time. He also appointed former Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake to head a development programme after the latter resigned in the wake of revelations that the main beneficiary of the bond scam, Arjun Aloysius who is also the son-in-law of Mahendran, had gifted him a plush penthouse.