PM wants parliament summoned to debate bond probe report Calls for investigation into bonds issued from 2008 to 2014
Posted on January 7th, 2018
by Zacki Jabbar Courtesy The Island
Prime Minister Ranil Wickreme-singhe said yesterday that he would request Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to summon Parliament fast to debate the Presidential Commission Report on the issuance of Treasury Bonds between February 2015 and March 2016.
Addressing the UNP’s 70th anniversary celebrations at Campbell Park in Borella, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe stressed that the UNP was committed to upholding the rule of law and good governance. “I will ask the Speaker to convene Parliament as early as possible so that the House could discuss the Bond Commission Report,” the PM said, adding that an investigation into Treasury bonds issued between 2008 and 2014 should also be conducted.
Wickremesinghe, on Friday, directed Central Bank Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy to implement the Bond commission’s recommendations.Yesterday, he urged the people to give the UNP a clear mandate at the forthcoming local government elections so that it could accelerate livelihood development programmes, increase employment opportunities for the youth, build more houses in the villages and ensure the overall development of the country.
Concrete steps had been taken to ensure food security and reduce the cost of living further, the Prime Minister added. Even though the UNP and SLFP were contesting local government separately, they were committed to continuing with their National Unity government, the PM said.
The UNP’s Colombo District Organisation Chairman and former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, commenting on findings of the Treasury Bond Commission said that the Prime Minister nor he had done anything wrong.
Detailed answers to the allegations levelled, would be provided once a copy of the Original Report was released by the Presidents Office, he assured. “Those who had not run even a bulath kade are falsely trying to implicate the Prime Minister and me.”
Karunanayake said that the report did not hold him or Wickremesinghe personally responsible for the conduct of Perpetual Treasuries, though some Opposition politicians were trying hard to do so. He emphasised that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government would continue their partnership, until the national agenda it had was fully carried out.
January 7th, 2018 at 5:07 pm
The parliament has no business with the Commission report other than legislate the laws required by it. There is nothing to debate on it. Sadly, UNP and JO have turned this into a political issue. Hopefully the AG Department will get on with their task quickly. We are already late.
January 8th, 2018 at 5:00 am
RW has learnt a wicked game from the Brits, and prides himself as he tries to be flippant while he wriggles through the
Bond Scam – a convoluted game that he himself had set with his pals, with absolute insouciance regarding the nation and
the People. How can he face the nation without shame?
I doubt Prez. Sirisena understands the Con-Game that he has got into….too complicated except he knows intuitively that he is being
a pawn in the plot, but little knowing his role and that he will go down in history as an aider and abettor for his participation in it…
a willing player in conning the nation, and playing his own role in helping the participants get away with it while convincing himself that he has come out of it smelling roses in true Brit style.
Can the people tolerate RW’s current attempt to have Parliament decide? What a mockery and a travesty of Democracy as well as of the Parliamentary process and the Judiciary! All the pawns had been set in place for the kill with the 19th Amendment.
Thank goodness that we do not have the Westminster style Parliamentary model that RW and his followers have been cheering for, for decades. Thank goodness the people have always rejected him for President!
It is the Presidential system that has saved the day for Sri Lanka as things stand now .DON’T MESS WITH IT!!