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Presidential officials study 1,400-page report by Bond Commission
View(s):Presidential Secretariat officials will study the report of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena to probe the Central Bank Treasury bond issue before deciding on what course of action to take. A senior Presidential Secretariat official said the report was a comprehensive one and they would need some time to study it. The report was handed over to President Sirisena by the Commission’s Chairman, Supreme Court Judge K. T Chitrasiri, last afternoon.
“It’s a complete report with all the recorded evidence, annexures and recommendations,” he said. The report, numbering 1,400 pages, includes around 100 annexures, the Sunday Times learns. The evidence of 70 witnesses who appeared before the Commission, too, is included. The handing over of the Report brings to an end the work of the three-member Presidential Commission of |Inquiry (COI) appointed in January to inquire into the issuance of Central Bank Treasury Bonds from February 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. The other members of the commission were Supreme Court Judge Prasanna Sujeewa Jayawardana and former Deputy Auditor General Veluppillai Kandasamy.
Bond Commission members handing over their comprehensive report to President Sirisena yesterday.
The witnesses included officials of the Central Bank, the EPF Department, state banks, the Central Bank’s former Governor Arjun Mahendran and several ministers. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe too appeared before it as the final witness.
The President appointed the COI amidst allegations of irregularities in the issuance of Treasury bonds during the specified period. Its terms of reference said that the President is “of the opinion that it is in the national interest to conduct such an inquiry into the bond issuance matter in order to determine what measures should be adopted so there will be no recurrence of such acts in the future.”