News
Motion to probe Central Bank purchase of overseas offices
View(s):A group of MPs have handed over a Motion to Speaker Karu Jayasuirya to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to investigate and report on the expenses incurred by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), for the purchase of Offices for the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brazil and for Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York. The Motion signed by MPs of the UNP, TNA and the JVP, was handed over by JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti who also heads the COPE.
The Motion also seeks to ascertain whether these purchases were duly authorised, the amount incurred on each of these premises separately; officers by name, responsible for and/or instructed the purchasing of these premises and other related matters.
The Motion has been included in the Addendum to the Order Book of Parliament. The Auditor General, in his annual report for 2014, concluded that, the CBSL’s purchase of property in Brazil for Rs 122.81 million in 2014, had not been done with prior Cabinet approval, and raised questions about its transaction.