By ; A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA 

Many countries have experienced the resignation of their Presidents and Prime Ministers when they face allegations of corruption and the latest to do so was the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sheriff.  Ihese resignations have occurred because those ressignees valued their integrity more than the luxury of the office they were holding.  We wonder whether such things will happen in our country as well?

All newspapers, websites, and TV outlets including the foreign press have given much publicity to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report that probed the Treasury Bond Scam which is considered as the biggest robbery that has taken place in the history of our country.

The Commission in its 1257 Pages report of inquiry conducted for 10 months has recommended and stated the following:

• That Prime Minister had erred in going by the information and assurances given by the then Governor Mahendran, on the question of conflict of interest  in regard to his son in law and primary dealer Arjun Aloysius. It said that the Prime Minister has told Parliament that believing in information provided by Mr. Arjun Mahendran he appointed Mr. Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank and the Prime Minister should not have done that.
• That the penthouse apartment occupied by former Finance Minister Mr. Ravi Karunanyaake belonged to the Aloysius Family and their Walt and Rowe Company and has recommended that the government should take necessary action against Mr. Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption Act and further legal action under the penal codes for giving false evidence at the Commission.
• That Central Bank officials were rendered inactive before former Central Bank Governor Mahendran and that Mahendran has made interference into bond auctions through a system of incorrect and unconventional methods and he was responsible for providing internal information to outsiders.
• That Perpetual Treasuries Limited has earned a profit of at least Rs. 688 million from the bond auction held on Feb 27, 2015 and it has earned a profit of Rs. 11.545 billion from its secondary market deals and the losses caused to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and state institutions amounted to more than Rs 8,529 million (Rs 8.5 billion). The commission has identified Arjun Alloysius, Kasun Palisena of PTL as those responsible for these losses to government and has recommended civil and criminal action against all those responsible..
• That legal action should be taken against relevant persons and officials who are responsible for the fraud including Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palihena.
• That Members of Monetary Board and Central Bank Governor must be appointed by the Constitutional Council in concurrence of the members and regulations must be amended accordingly.
• That there should be utmost supervision over the State Credit Department as auditing at the Central Bank has not been conducted in a proper manner, the Commission recommends that the Audit Department must be reconstituted completely. A Legal Department must be established in the Central Bank and ensure that the Legal Department functions efficiently.
• That the Attorney General and the Bribery or Corruption Commission must take legal actions to implement the recommendations of the Commission.
• That under normal circumstances, recovery of money is done through civil legal action but however, sincec it is a time consuming method an alternative, a Parliamentary Legislation should be passed and the money should be recovered in a speedy manner through a Parliamentary procedure.
• That all the expenditure occurred for the Commission must be recovered from the Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

(Thirudaathe paappa thirudaathe – Don’t rob babaa don’t rob –A song from the Tamil film Thirudaathe)

The President has assured that he will not attempt to cover anyone and promised to implement the Commission recommendarions by entrusting the task to the Attorney General’s Department.  Can we trust this assurance? Sri Lankans have not forgotten that when Mr. DEW Gunasekera was to present the first COPE report on the Tresury Bond Scam it was this same Sirissena who dissolved the then Parliament and obstructed Mr. Gunasekera from publishing that report.  If that report was published the profit earned by Perpetual Treasuries Limited would have been Rs. 688 million from the bond auction held on Feb 27, 2015, and the loss to the government of Rs. 11.545 billion from its secondary market deals could have been prevented.  As such President Sirisena should be directly held responsible for the loss incurred by the government from the second Treasury Bond Sales deal.

The Island editorial on 14^th November said that President Maithripala Sirisena who has lamented that the first bond scam occurred within weeks of the formation of the yahapalana government is blameworthy because he dissolved Parliament, foreclosing the submission of the COPE report on that financial crime and he cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the second bond scam carried out by those who captured power in the August General Election with his help.

Was the issuance of this report was timed with a hidden sinister motive underneath. It has been observed that after the August 2015 parliamentary election, there was a clear deterioration in the relationship between the SLFP and the UNP when Sirisena grabbed many of the best ministries to be distributed to his SLFP loyalists while the UNP got the crumbs.For the last one year or so we do not find Sirisena and Ranil going on the same wave length.  Ranil is firmly on his usual and committed cosmopolitan neo liberalist path and Sirisena desperately attempting to get crowned as the rural based SLFP leader.  We wonder whether this Commission report was timed to release end of the year as Sirisena prevented some of the SLFP Ministers who were to leave the government asking them to wait until December end expecting some positive changes.

For the last several months we do not find Sirisena’s much hyped so-called national reconciliation talks as well.   It may be another aspect of his sinister plan that he made a formidable attempt to unify the two SLFP factions with the assistance of some prominent members of the Maha Sangha.  Whatever that may be it is naive for him to expect to form a government of his own and he will never succeed in mustering 113 MPs to appoint his own Prime Minister.

Upholding his infamous talk last week of chopping the heads off of anyone who indulge in wrong doings he may use the commission report to take action against the 2Rs and against the 2As and show that he is an upholder of justice.  But taking action against Ranil at this juncture he is bound to strike the hornets nest as he is a person who is being intensely despised by grass root level SLFPers who are waiting for a moment and a cause to rebel against him and they will be joined in this spectacle by the infuriated UNPers as well.

Meanwhile the Joint Opposition says the extra set of Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministers appointed by the Government have become unconstitutional and illegal. It said the number of Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministers had been determined by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and that number stands at 70 and according to clause 46 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, the number of Cabinet ministers shouldn’t exceed 30 and non-Cabinet ministers 40. However, in an event where a National Government was formed, the number of ministers could be increased. Hence, we have 100 ministers, having 30 extra. The National Organiser of JO and MP Dullas Alahapperuma told a news briefing that with the expiration of the agreement between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) for a National Government on December 31, the functioning of excess 30 ministers is unconstitutional and illegal.

This situation could lead to chaos in the country and collapse of the government as this Commission report has ruptured the SLFP-UNP ill fated honeymoon and the biggest losers will be the Ministers of the SLFP Sirisena faction.