Dheerasinghe’s conflict of interests at Commercial bank
View(s):Just as Dinesh Weerakkody steps down tomorrow as chairman of Commercial Bank, a well-managed institution, conflicts of interest of his natural successor, Dharma Dheerasinghe are surfacing once again, three years later.
Dr. Dheerasinghe retired from the Central Bank (CB) in late 2011 as Deputy Governor and soon after was appointed to the Commercial Bank as a director, representing a state stake in the private bank. In December 2011 when Mr. Weerakkody took over as chairman, Dr. Dheerasinghe was appointed Deputy Chairman.
At the time, business analysts raised the conflict of interest in the appointment saying Dr. Dheerasinghe’s wife was the EPF Superintendent at the CB, later to be promoted to Assistant Governor with supervisory control over EPF matters.
These issues have emerged once again since the EPF and related parties have a near 20 per cent stake in the bank with two other directors representing these interests –Prithi Jayawardene and Lakshman Hulugalle who have ‘fit and proper’ issues to serve on the board. Mr. Hulugalle, now Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner in Australia, was found guilty by a court in a timber racket while recently he allegedly tried to commit suicide on two occasions.
Mr. Jayawardene was embroiled in an issue at the then Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka when senior accountant Asita Talwatte was found guilty by a institute-appointed committee on issues relating to professional misconduct. “The saving grace in all these issues is that despite the political influence over the board, the bank has been professionally managed so far,” said K.C.Vignarajah, a bank shareholder who had earlier urged the creation of three executive directors (bank employees) from a current two to resist other pressures.