No ‘mercy’ for veteran actress from finance Cos.
Mercy Edirisinghe, the lovable, female comedian of Sinhala cinema who died recently, was one of the victims of the crisis in some finance companies that has afflicted many of Sri Lanka’s elderly citizens.
Ms. Edirisinghe, a veteran theatre, stage and TV actress, was an investor of the failed Central Investment and Finance Ltd (CIFL) along with her sisters and their pleas from the management to pay her hospital bills and overcome her illness did not work.
She was suffering from heart failure, high blood pressure and acute diabetics for the last two years, according to her sister Ranjani Edirisinghe. While Mercy had invested Rs. 200,000, her other sister, Susan Jayanthi had invested Rs. 800,000 and they had pleaded with the CIFL management to return their money to pay the bills at Nawaloka Hospital, without success. “We could have (even) prolonged her life if we had this money,” Ms. Ranjani said.
At least seven of the depositors at CIFL have died presumably unable to meet the medical expenses, when their ailments reached a critical stage.
Wijaya Gunawardena, President, CIFL Depositors Association (CIFLDA), also said that the effort of Mercy’s sisters to recover the money failed.
One depositor told the Business Times (BT) that when people die under special circumstances, the state used to bear the cost of the funeral and afford some financial solace to the dependents of the diseased. In the same way, he suggested that the government should bear the funeral cost, considering that this is extraordinary circumstances “Is the CB a sleeping brute?”, he flushed with anger. He said that after all, the people have tried to help the economy of the country with their investments.
Among the 5,000 odd depositors of CIFL, Mr. Gunawardena said that there are about 1,800 depositors who have deposited between Rs 100,000 and one million and they almost entirely depend on the interest of their deposits, for day-to-day living and to cover medical expenditure. They were the most vulnerable to die for want of funds.
He said that the depositors are not aware of the extent of assets of the company and as officially CIFL is functioning there is a likelihood of siphoning these assets because it appeared that loans given by the company are being recovered. Even vehicles can be sold without the knowledge of the depositors, he pointed out.
Though officially functioning, Mr. Gunawardena asserted that physically the company is not properly functioning and wondered why a large number of employees are idling, with apparently no work. He said that they are now searching for a strategy to obtain all the information of the actual situation of the company, the extent of assets, and what functions the employees attend now etc, so that there should be accountability.
Some depositors also fear that prolonging a settlement might diminish the momentum and interest, while their other fear is that the matter would go off the public domain.
Mr. Gunawardena said that the depositors who encamped and continued a ‘sit-in sathyagraha’ at the CIFL premises have called it off as they received an assurance by the Assistant Secretary to the Presidential Secretariat that he would arrange a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the depositors to solve the matter once and for all. They are awaiting the call from the President.
The association has two more branches in Kandy and Galle and they soon organize two branches in Jaffna and Gampaha. “There are more than 500 depositors from Jaffna,” Mr. Gunawardena said.