Courtesy The Island

September 8, 2016, 10:11 pm

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) yesterday concluded its investigation into Central Bank bond scam with its members having divided opinions on various aspects of the probe.

COPE Chairman JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti ordered the printing of COPE report on the investigations. The report will be presented to Parliament on Oct. 13.

Incumbent Chairman of the Central Bank Indrajit Coomaraswamy was summoned before the COPE yesterday, but he was there only for 10 minutes as members of the committee were divided on their opinion, a senior COPE Member said.

COPE members met earlier in the day and discussed the questioning of Coomaraswamy.

JVP and UPFA MPs opposed UNP parliamentarian Ajith Perera’s proposal to obtain responses from Coomaraswamy under oath. The opposition MPs pointed out that there was no need for compelling a person of Coomaraswamy’s calibre to such an ordeal as he was well aware of his responsibilities and what he would tell.

The UNP MPs supported the proposal by their colleague.  However, as the majority was opposed to the UNP’s proposal, it was decided not to obtain statements from Coomaraswamy under oath.

When Coomaraswamy came to give evidence only UNP MP Dr Harsha de Silva asked a couple of questions and he was permitted to leave as others had no questions, sources said adding that the division of opinion might lead the UNP MPs to compile a separate report on the investigation.

There were provisions for a group of members of the COPE to express their opinion on an investigation in a separate report not agreeing with the committee’s final report, sources said. Such an eventuality while displaying disagreement would permit the majority of the committee to include more details on their report and leave the public to decide which version was more accurate, they said.