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Home » ColumnsCOPE stirs hope but questions
loom over what’s next By Chandani Kirinde- Lobby Correspondent Being Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in Sri Lanka’s Parliament hasn’t always been easy. One of its former Chairmen, now Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, had to cross over to the United National Party (UNP) in 2007, following explosive revelations in his COPE report [...]
Fiscal reforms imperative for sustained growth— Lankan economists’ consensus
Economists who addressed the 30th Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Economic Association on October 21st and 22nd on the theme “Fiscal Reforms: An Imperative for Sustained Economic Growth” agreed that the country could not go forward without fiscal reforms and fiscal consolidation. Fiscal reforms were imperative to enhance government revenue, reduce the fiscal deficit [...]
COPE, counter-terror and the karmic effect
There is a whiff of ‘victory’ in the air. We are being told that this Friday’s report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the bond fraud of the country’s premier financial institution, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was a singular gain for democracy. An artful crafting of a ‘win’ Former Central Bank [...]
Protect nature and harvest rain water
The Government was recently considering a water cut due to the severe drought. There were doubts about the supply of electricity also. There was a time in Sri Lanka when rain water was collected from the roofs as is done in countries such as Thailand and Japan. Today few if any people do this rain [...]
Some James Bond mysteries in the bond scam
Ask any fan of the fictional British Secret Service detective and they will tell you that their hero James Bond always triumphs over evil. Most Sri Lankans in the past weeks had to contend with a new kind of bond – those issued by the Central Bank. For days before the Parliamentary oversight Committee on [...]
The dramatic bond issue: How COPE went beyond bioscope
After some 18 months of strenuous debate and the UNP’s defence of former CBSL governor But footnotes added by UNP MPs as riders By Our Political Editor At no time before has the United National Party (UNP) used its might so strongly in Parliament to try and block what it perceived was a report [...]
Looking over your shoulder
My dear Mahendran, I thought of writing to you, although I am not sure where to send this letter to because some are saying you have taken wing to Singapore, which is your ‘home’ country anyway. I hope you do return to our shores because there is a lot of unfinished business here, as you [...]
Independent commissions and all the brouhaha
Last Sunday’s perceptive editorial in this newspaper on President Sirisena’s sudden and unexpected critique of some independent commissions and its implications might have touched many a raw nerve. The fact is that however annoyed or disturbed they may be that editorial which also provided interesting background to the wielding of political power, spoke some home [...]
AAVA may come, AAVA may go but AAVA must be destructed, pronto
Red flare warning as new northern terror group claims responsibility for Sunday’s revenge attack The tragic death of two university students in Jaffna after police opened fire when they failed to stop at a checkpoint brought to light this Tuesday the existence of a new Tamil terror grouping which claimed responsibility for the sword attack [...]