CB Chief denies divisional heads shuffle allegations

Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran yesterday denied all allegations made over the shuffle of divisional heads, pointing out that it was a common practice of the bank.

“I categorically deny it. It is a normal routine that the bank practices in the medium term.

The bank has done it many times in the past as well,” he said.

He went on to say that although he wanted to implement it, due to the General Election he could not implement it.

Noting that there were 13 departments within the Central Bank, he pointed out that all employees were skilled enough to work in any department of the bank.

“We do not want anyone to be strangled in a department for a long period and make their work boring,” the Governor said.

Justifying his move he said that he wanted the regional development in the country to be monitored more prudently.

However, Daily FT learns that it has caused a stir within the bank, where the Governor had to take control of the conference room booking system as well.

Responding to this Mahendran said that since conference room facilities at the Central Bank had not yet been updated, he took over control of it. He said that it would be returned to normal administration once the system was updated.

Concern was not over the decision to shuffle but the choice of people who had been assigned new departments, ignoring their competence. However, others claimed that the change was not often welcomed by those concerned, hence the objection.

Some of the departments that saw new directors were Bank Supervision, Exchange Control, Public Debt, IT, International Operations, Supervision of Non Bank Financial Institutions and Facilities Management.

Yvette Fernando has been moved from Bank Supervision to Exchange Control.

IT Department Director E.A. Hettiarachchi has been moved to the Facilities Management Department, with the new IT head being C.M.D.N.K. Seneviratne, who was previously Head of Public Debt.

Public Debt’s new Director is T.H.B. Sarathchandra, who was previously Additional Director at International Operations.

Centre for Banking Studies Director M.J.S. Abeysinghe has been made one of the four new Directors in charge of provinces along with D.M. Rupasinghe, the former Director of Exchange Control.

Facilities Management Department Director U.H.E. Silva has been made Director of Banking Studies.

U.P. Alawattage is the new Director of the Non Bank Supervision Department, and its former Head K.M.A.N. Daulagala is one of the Directors in charge of provinces.

The new CB Secretary is K.H.A.S. Ariyaratne, who was previously Additional Director of the Statistics Department. Former Secretary M.I. Sufiyan has been appointed Director of provinces.