Dr. Harsha raises fresh queries on NSB, Greek bonds

By Ashwin Hemmathagama

Our Lobby Correspondent

The Appropriation Bill 2013 was passed with amendments on Saturday by Parliament, receiving a preponderance of 101 votes, which is a special majority under Article 84 (2) of the Constitution as per the Supreme Court ruling, bringing an end to the Second Reading and the Committee Stage Debate, which was on for 23 days since 9 November 2012. Members of the United National Party, Democratic National Alliance, and Tamil National Alliance voted against.

On the last day of the Committee Stage Program, Opposition legislator Dr. Harsha de Silva moving the debate on Ministry of Finance and Planning, said: “When I took up the NSB matter in this House, many names were brought up. Nivard Cabraal who came here last night to give evidence was also mentioned during my revelation. I mentioned the name of Anura Fernando who was in Cabraal’s Gold Quest institution. Where is Anura Fernando, Ajith Devasurendra, Preethi Jayawardena? What happened to them? The President says all are equal before the law. If so why not punish these people. Are they above the law and the Chief Justice? Is this fair? When was the last time you conducted an investigation so fast and punished the culprits?

“We talked about the Greek bonds here in this House. Aren’t we going to punish those who rescind public money? We continue to increase the tax on canned fish consumed by the common man. The Opposition Leader raised a question on 17 June on the worthless investments in Greek bonds. In response Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama stated EUR 30 million was invested in the so-called investment. He also said the loss was EUR 6.6 million. But according to the Auditor General’s report there are other losses, a wipeout of EUR 8.025 million. All-in-all this is a 60 per cent loss.

“When we disclosed the NSB deal the transactions were reversed so that the Government didn’t incur a loss, following a direction from the President. Similar to the loss incurred in the hedging deal, we will have to pay for the losses of the Greek bonds. Minister Amunugama has misled the House reading out a lie that said ‘the decision to invest in Greek bonds was influenced by the fact that at the time there was a robust framework in place for crisis management in Europe supported by a financial stability package. Then there was this big fund created to save Greece at that time.’ This is absolute bunkum. Yes it was there to protect Greece, but not to protect Sri Lanka.

“On 24 and 25 March, the European Commission said the European Financial Facility gave itself preferred creditor status. It says in all cases in order to protect taxpayers’ money and to send a clear signal to private creditors that their claims are subordinated to those of the official sector, an ESM loan will enjoy preferred creditor status junior only to the IMF loan. Preferred creditor status is a secondary mortgage. So others have no guarantee. The Government of Sri Lanka didn’t have any chance in hell of getting this money back. Why did we make this investment on 8 April after the above statement was issued? In June the right to preferential creditor status was given up by the EU authorities. Adding more to this the Auditor General is saying that for such investments, approval from the Monetary Board should be taken. But approval is not taken; it has been kept until maturity to take approval. Who authorised them to use Parliamentary power to take decisions violating Article 148 of the Constitution? I have the Greek bond graph here with me, which shows the decline of our investment in Greek bonds. We have asked about a single transaction with regard to NSB. I have also asked about TFC for over one year. Why are you not giving the details of these transactions? I want them to come here during this Committee stage and respond to these questions,” said MP Dr. de Silva.