Heads roll as Cabraal steps down, PBJ said to be abroad
View(s):Heads at key Sri Lankan government institutions rolled at the weekend as advisors of the new regime running Sri Lanka sought to find urgent replacements.
“These places will be filled in the next few days,” a senior advisor to President-elect Maithripala Sirisena’s new administration told the Business Times.
Controversial Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal stepped down on Friday while the equally-powerful Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera was believed to have gone abroad on Thursday night. Both Jayasundera and Cabraal were the most influential finance officials in Rajapaksa’s government.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the senior advisor said that appointees were being finalised to take over the Treasury and the Central Bank as the most immediate needs. Other positions to be filled were the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board. “We need to fill all these positions as soon as possible,” he added.
Asked whether changes were being made at regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka, he said, “yes. But our first priority is the earlier stated ones.”
Cabraal submitted his resignation on Friday morning just as President Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down after failing in a bid to secure a third term in office.
Later at around 2 pm he addressed the staff at the banking regulator’s headquarters, thanking them for their services and support during his term of office which began in 2006.