Lawyers Committee on banks, CB, Treasury meets on Oct 7
Just as depositors in failed finance companies questioned that a special committee appointed by the Prime Minister to examine finance institutions including the Central Bank had suddenly gone silent, the committee said this week that it would start work on October 7.
The committee of lawyers appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe comprises Harsha Soza – PC, Vinodh Wickramasooriya and Roshaan Hettiarachchi appointed in June was charged with probing the affairs of banks, financial institutions, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Treasury, Central Bank and the Registrar of Companies.
This week, Mr. Soza told the Business Times they have commenced processing many complaints received. He said that every single complaint has been acknowledged and as they do not have the power to summon, like a court of law, they have asked the complainants to appear before their tribunal. If the complainants do not appear, the Committee doesn’t have the power to force them to appear, he revealed.
This is similar to the earlier lawyer-committee probing the Central Bank bond issue which also didn’t have powers of summoning people. Mr. Soza said that on October 7 they will have their first sitting and acknowledged there were delays in starting the process owing to some technical issues such as the parliamentary elections and the Secretary to the Committee getting his letter of appointment.
He said once the complaints are processed after inquiry, the Committee would decide the further course of action according to their mandate. However a group of depositors of a failed institution said in a letter to the Business Times that they have not got a response to representation send by registered mail and a fax number given in a newspaper notice calling for public representations.