{"id":86803,"date":"2019-03-28T14:51:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T21:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86803"},"modified":"2019-03-28T14:51:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T21:51:45","slug":"yahapalana-and-corruption-part-3c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/03\/28\/yahapalana-and-corruption-part-3c\/","title":{"rendered":"YAHAPALANA AND CORRUPTION Part 3C"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

CID had been\ndirected by the Commission of Inquiry, to probe links between Aloysius and the\nMPs who had added footnotes to the  COPE\nreport on the Treasury bond scam. The investigation, conducted by the Criminal\nInvestigation Department (CID), showed a spate of telephone conversations\nbetween Arjun Aloysius and some members of the COPE team that probed the bond\nscams. There were 227 with Sujeewa Senasinghe, 176 with Harshana Rajakaruna, 73\nwith Hector Appuhamy and 18   with\nDayasiri Jayasekara.    Some\nat least, of these calls,   were taken during\nthe COPE hearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CID\ninformed the Commission of inquiry that Deputy Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe had\nhad the highest number of telephone conversations with Aloysius during the\nperiod under investigation. The total number of telephone calls to and from\nSenasinghe to Aloysius between the periods July 4, 2015 to March 3, 2017, which\ncoincided with COPE sessions,  was 227. Sujeewa Senasinghe had been put onto to the COPE\nteam probing the alleged Central Bank bond scam when Velu Kumar resigned on\nJuly 5, 2016. 63 of the calls were during his tenure as a member of the COPE team\nprobing Aloysius. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sujeewa Senasinghe\nimmediately called a news conference. He\nsaid he spoke to Aloysius to obtain information on the book he was writing on\nthe Bond scam. \u2018I did not have the information and therefore got details from\nArjuna Mahendran and other officials. Is it wrong that I spoke to Aloysius?\nAloysius is not an accused anywhere. After the second COPE was set up, I never\nspoke to him,\u2019 announced Senasinghe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sujeewa did not explain, however, why he felt\nimpelled to write a book on the subject whist being a member of COPE, said critics.  It was pointed out also that his book Maha\nBankuwe Badhumkara Nikuthuwe Attha Nattha,\u201d was published in 2015. The\ntelephone records  produced by the CID\ntook place during the COPE sittings,  6th\nMay to 28th October 2016. These 62 calls were made one year after his bond book\nwas published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SLFP MP D. V. Chanaka had asked Sujeewa in Parliament,\n whether Sujeewa  can tell the House what he spoke to Aloysius\nabout. Sujeewa replied Merely because we are on the COPE Committee, why cannot\nwe talk to a private person? Tell me a legal reason. Aloysius has not been made\nan accused. And if I need to get some information from him, why cannot I talk to\nhim?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D.V.Chanaka read from the Senasinghe book on\nthe bond issue. If you have something to buy and if your uncle has a shop, and\nif that item is available for sale at your uncle\u2019s shop and if you purchase\nthat item from your uncle\u2019s shop in the normal course of trade, then who, in\nhis right mind, can say the transaction was based on family relationship?\u201d D.V.\nChanaka then asked Sujeewa, Do you think that this is a case of  a person going to his father in law\u2019s shop\nand buying a loaf of bread? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sujeewa Senasinghe   had  also accepted money from Aloysius. He had  accepted three cheques to the tune of Rs. 3\nmillion from W. M. Mendis & Company, belonging to Arjun Aloysius. The first\ncheque  was for one million rupees,\nissued from W. M. Mendis Company, a Bank of Ceylon account, to Senasinghe was\ndated August 24, 2015. The cheque was cashed by Ministerial Security Division\n(MSD and the money handed over to one of Senasinghe\u2019s aides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second cheque also for one million rupees,\n was issued on Nov. 12, 2015 from the\nsame account. It  was cashed by\nMinisterial Security Division (MSD) . It was said by Senasinghe’s campaign team\nthat the  money was spent on the election\ncampaign. They did not know who gave the cheques. However, there was no\nelection at that time. The third\none-million-rupee cheque was issued on March 31, 2016 from the same account <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There Finance\nMinister Ravi Karunanayake\u2019s name came up frequently, although he himself\ndenied any special relationship\u201d with   \nAloysius,  said Namini Wijedasa. Ravi Karunanayake\u2019s name had come up\nfrequently  in the investigation that\nNamini had conducted.   The\nCID   found 387 calls between Finance\nMinister Ravi Karunanayake and  Arjun Aloysius.\nYou are linked with the Mahendra family , Ravi was told. This is ludicrous,\nreplied Ravi. We have been family friends for years.  His son-in-law and my grandfather were known\nto each other. (sic)The family are also good friends of Premier Wickremesinghe.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister\nRavi Karunanayake had at been at a meeting of CEOs of Primary dealers  in March 2015. This  was unprecedented, said Bank officials.\nFormer Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Ananda Silva,  said he\nhad\nbeen informed  on February 26, the day\nbefore the  Bond auction that  a meeting would be held at the Central Bank\ncafeteria   on the\n26th<\/sup> attended by three powerful ministers of the\ngovernment and he had been asked to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those present at the meeting chaired by Arjuna\nMahendran had  included  Ministers Ravi Karunanayake, Kabir Hashim and\nMalik Samarawickrama, Finance Ministry Secretary Dr Samaratunge and some\nofficers of the Road\nDevelopment Authority. The discussion  was on obtaining funds for some road\ndevelopment projects. It was most unusual for politicians to visit the Central\nBank and participate in meetings in this manner. The practice was for CB\nofficials to visit the respective ministries and hold discussions with the\nsenior officers or ministers, Silva said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Chairmen and senior officials of three major\nstate banks, Bank of Ceylon, the People\u2019s Bank and the National Savings Bank,\ntestifying before the presidential commission of inquiry probing the bond scams  said that on two occasions in 2016,  Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had\ninstructed them to make bids at the treasury bond auctions held on March 28,\n2016 and March 30,2016, at lower interest (yield) rates. Prime\nMinister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Senior Advisor R. Paskaralingam had also been\npresent .As a  result, their institutions\nhad been deprived of an opportunity to make substantial profits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Manager of the People’s Bank N.\nWasantha Kumara said it was the first time in the country\u2019s history that a\nfinance minister had asked the state banks to bid for treasury bonds at lower\ninterest rates. In answer to a question why the state banks had carried out\nKarunanayake\u2019s instructions, Hemasiri Fernando of Peoples bank, said the state\nbanks belonged to the Treasury and therefore they had to abide by those\ninstructions. Karunanayake was the line minister therefore they had followed\ninstructions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senior officials of the three banks also\nsaid that though they had followed the instructions given by Minister Ravi\nKarunanayake, the latter had failed to honour his promise that the Central Bank\nwould not accept bids at rates higher than the yield rate range he had\nmentioned to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perpetual Treasuries it  was said, \nhad   two \u2018Things to Do files\u2019 . one   for father\nin law, Arjuna Mahendran the other for   Ranil Wickremasinghe  .\nFrom\nthe beginning, we have repeatedly said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is\nresponsible for the bond scams and it happened with is blessings and\ninstructions. Now, his involvement has been proved and he should resign\nat-least now,” MP Aluthgamage said. there has been enough of evidence\nbefore the Commission against those responsible and now it was time to take\nlegal action against them.” Derana\nnews  of 4.1.18 aired the  statement \nRanil must resign.  He appointed\nMahendran\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business\nTimes (BT)  did an opinion poll on the\nbond scam in January 2018.  The survey,\nconducted over just 10 hours, attracted a wide response from a cross-section of\npeople including company directors, public officials, social activists and\nstudents. It reflected the public\u2019s anxiety to ascertain the findings of the\nCommission whose widely-publicized proceedings itself attracted a lot of\nattention amongst scandalous profit-making by  Perpetual Treasuries. (PTL)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a quick BT\nsurvey through email 82 per cent of the respondents said  Bond Commission\u2019s findings is a fair and\nindependent view of corrupt deals in the disputed bond trades.  a resounding 99 per cent said Yes\u201d when asked\nwhether strong action should be taken against those named in the report as\nbeing involved in the corrupt deals, while 90 per cent agreed that the report\nshould be speedily released to the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

asked whether\nthe Government will definitely take action against the accused persons\u201d, 53\nper cent responded with Undecided,\u201d 26 per cent said No\u201d and 21 per cent said\nYes\u201d.  Some respondents who did their\nown polls on a Twitter account found the same result. people are not convinced that the government\nwould take action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCommission seems to be too lenient in its statements on the PM\u2019s role,\nrespondent said. The politician\nmentioned (in the report) will be let off. So will the head of the bank. The\nrest of the guys named will be punished then bailed out,\u201d said another\ndisappointed respondent people are not convinced that the government would take\naction. Given the poor track record of\nthis Government in its action against the so-called crooks\u201d of the last\nregime, taking action\u201d is a debatable point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There could\nbe some legal hurdles. Can a court of law pass judgment on the basis of the\nfindings of a Commission? Unlikely. So the AG\u2019s Department will have to prove\nfresh cases against each of the accused. The government may go through the\nmotions for appearances sake, but the chances of all parties being adequately\npunished are slim, said respondents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yahapalana as\nusual, tried to put the blame on the Rajapaksa regime. There have been issues\nover bond transactions since 2007\/2008 period. Nobody spoke of them,\u201d said\nPresident Sirisena in 2017. investigations should cover a ten-year period of\nbond issues by the CBSL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister\nRanil Wickremasinghe  said that\nbond sales had been made from 2008 to 2014 on private placements without\ninforming the Monetary Board of the Central Bank or Parliament.  90 percent of these had been done on private\nplacements using EPF, ETF and National Savings Bank funds. ”  Ranil Wickremasinghe announced that  the government would launch a special probe\ninto bond sales related issues from 2008 to 2014 to the tune of Rs\n5,147,751,210,000.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajit Nivard Cabraal replied these allegations.\nMy attention is drawn to the statement made by President Sirisena on 3rd January\n2018, on the Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry. In his\nstatement, it is said, inter alia, that the “Commission is of the opinion\nthat similar incidents as revealed in the Commission Report had happened even\nin 2008. The Commission recommends that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka should\nfirst conduct a forensic audit with regard to the alleged fraud and corrupt\npractices from 2008 and based on such findings legal steps should be\ntaken”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabraal said that he did not see  any references to improper Bond issues of\n2008 to 2014, emerging in the Commissions proceedings. however, if President\nSirisena wishes to ascertain for himself as to whether there have been\n“fraud and corrupt practices from 2008” and whether such practices\nhad caused losses to the government he has only to refer to the Auditor\nGeneral\u2019s Special Examination Report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabraal observed that Prime Minister Ranil\nWickremasinghe in Parliament referred to the time-tested and highly-effective\n“auction cum direct-placement” method of issuing Treasury Bills and\nBonds as a corrupt and un-regulated “private placement” system and   said that massive frauds took place  in  the\nRajapaksa period  due to this method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabraal replied, the “auction cum direct\nplacement” system that was in place from 1997 up to 27th February 2015\nenabled the Central Bank to obtain the best possible interest rates and\nconsequently borrow at the least cost to the Government. That system also\nensured that no undue advantage was enjoyed by any primary dealer, since all dealers\nwere required to invest in the Government Securities at around the prevailing\nmarket yield curve. Accordingly, this time-tested, transparent and\nwell-thought-out system (contrary to the baseless allegations of the Prime\nMinister), enabled the Government to issue Treasury Bills and Bonds through the\nCentral Bank without any substantiated allegations of fraud and\/or misconduct\nand\/or major controversy for over 18 years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabraal said that at the invitation of the\nBond Commission, on 25th October 2017, he \nsubmitted a comprehensive assessment of the loss suffered by the Bond\nscam, which places the direct loss to the Government,  (using Auditor general\u2019s data), at Rs.1,674\nmillion, and the loss due to the increase in the interest burden of the\nGovernment as a result of the unnecessary and unwarranted increase in interest\nrates at Rs. 144,598 million. In addition, there is also the loss suffered by\nthe general public due to the increase in interest rates, losses suffered by\nthe economy due to the erosion of confidence as a result of the bond scam, as\nwell as the losses suffered by the EPF and other Government institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in response to President Sirisena\u2019s comments\nabout the Treasury Bond issues from 2008 to 2014, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa\nhas already stated that he would welcome a forensic audit on the bond issues\npertaining to the period of the UPFA government. In like manner, I would also\nwelcome any examination or investigation in order that the suspicions raised by\nthe Prime Minister relating to the bond issues during the period that President\nSirisena himself was a senior Cabinet Minister, could be either confirmed or\ndismissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Lastly,\nCabraal pointed out that  Perpetual\nTreasuries  did not rob  money from the EPF and other government\ninstitutions at gunpoint or by breaking their safes. These institutions\nwillingly handed over funds to PTL  in\nreturn for personal benefit. In such a case, aren\u2019t they the real culprits who\ncaused losses to the government? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe the existing laws are adequate to\nprosecute them if the government has the will.PTL was able to make this\nenormous profits only because of the help it got from insiders in these\ngovernment institutions, who probably were well compensated. It was a game\nplayed by PTL together with insider in these government institutions to siphon\noff public funds. Therefore, without pointing the finger at PTL alone,\nauthorities should immediately prosecute the relevant officials in these other\ninstitutions for aiding and abetting PTL for robbing them. They should also be\nmade liable to pay back the money they earned through these transactions.(\ncontinued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS CID had been directed by the Commission of Inquiry, to probe links between Aloysius and the MPs who had added footnotes to the  COPE report on the Treasury bond scam. The investigation, conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), showed a spate of telephone conversations between Arjun Aloysius and some members of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,104,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption-and-bribery","category-kamalika-pieris","category-106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}