Rajitha lambasts Bond Commission over nature of inquiry

Thursday, 23 November 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Cabinet Co-spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne yesterday severely criticised the conduct of the Bond Commission though appreciating the decision by President Maithripala Sirisena to appoint it to probe the Central Bank debt securities issuances of February 2015.

Senaratne said that that the inquiry should be focused on the technical aspects and calculating financial losses to the public and not on who has been associating with those involved in the transactions.

“The commission should have brought foreign experts, not Sri Lankan people. There are foreign experts that should have been brought down and asked to inquire into the issue and produce a report,” said Health Minister Senaratne.

“This commission mostly discussed who was calling whom, who was dining with whom and who bought houses. None of this is important to the country’s economy. What is important is whether this was a loss to the country or beneficial to the country. Who spoke to whom or if houses were bought for individuals from that money is not important here. A businessman may have made profits and from that profit others may have benefited, but that doesn’t explain if the country has made losses.”

Senaratne also called into question why the commission instructed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate calls made by former PTL Director Arjun Aloysius and former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.

“They have now said that there is no value in the information obtained so then why did they instruct the CID to investigate the numbers,” he said. The Cabinet Co-spokesperson later clarified that legal action based on call records may be taken up later.

However, Senaratne maintained that President Maithripala Sirisena appointed the commission in good faith and that the country had gained a good reputation even among the international community over how the Government has handled the issue.

“When we came to power after vowing to defeat corruption, we had to ensure that the very first accusation against us was investigated,” he said.

The President summoned all members of the Government later and explained the reasons behind appointing the commission to investigate the issue, Senaratne explained.