Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Central Bank’s former governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said yesterday he would gladly go before a presidential commission if such a commission was set up to probe alleged bond irregularities from 2008 to 2014.

If there is commission that the Prime Minister wants to set up, please tell me I will go before it. I will be at my home, the address of which is known. I’m not from Singapore but from Colombo,” he said.

Mr. Cabraal said he hoped there would be commissions to probe the ‘Australian issue’, the alleged central expressway frauds and the fertilizer crisis.

He told a news briefing said if there was a single fraud during the time he was the CB governor, the Prime Minister would have taken action.

If there were such issues during my time, I should have been in jail now. The issue is who should take responsibility for this bond scam? Can anyone find Arjuna Mahendran today? Is he even in Sri Lanka,” he asked.

Mr. Cabraal rejected allegations that large scale frauds relating to Bond transactions had taken place during his tenure saying the allegations were baseless.

On August 19, 2016 the then finance minister Ravi Karunanayake requested the President for a report of Bond transactions from 2008 to 2014. The report was given on January 16, 2017. The report clearly states there was nothing wrong. I request the President to go through this document,” he said.