Top union seeks meeting with President to discuss bond fiasco
View(s):Trade unions are urging the Government to immediately appoint a committee of legal and management experts to work on issues to protect the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) following revelations made in the Bond Commission report.
The proposed committee should work closely with the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), says Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary, Free Trade and General Services Employees’ Union, in a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, also seeking a meeting with the President to discuss these matters.
He has suggested amending EPF Act No.15 of 1958 to include provisions that would clearly define all private sector employees as legal owners of the EPF; incorporate necessary provisions to allow employee representation in the management of the EPF; and formulate a legal basis for EPF members to elect their own representatives to the Management Committee of the EPF line with procedures that governs election of members to the Education Employees’ Co-operative Thrift & Credit Society and that of the Health Department Co-operative Thrift and Credit Society.
Mr. Marcus said his union has have over the years made representations to all relevant authorities and to the media against mismanagement and misappropriation of EPF money. Investigations by the Commission now “prove us right”, confirming the EPF had been fraudulently exploited by those in charge of its management in collaboration with wheeler dealers, the letter stated.
“We firmly believe these extremely corrupt deals by Central Bank (CB) officials handling the EPF in collaboration with outside wheeler dealers had been going on even before the reported bond scam in February 2015. There were serious audit queries raised by the Auditor General during the previous regime too. What was established by this Commission report is that even the CB Governor as a political appointee however qualified and experienced he can be, scheme and collaborate in these mega deals, robbing the only fund the private sector employees have as security for their retired life,” it said.
Mr. Marcus said that with such high profile corruption using the EPF monies, the union is firmly convinced the Commission has failed to realise and accept the EPF as owned by private sector employees, who are legal members of the EPF holding individual accounts in the EPF.
“As such, the recommendation in the Commission report from No.14 to No.16 (both numbers included) only deals with instituting legal action by the Attorney General where appropriate and if possible against former Chairman of Pan Asia Bank Nimal Perera, investigation on transactions entered into by EPF to ascertain if any loss has occurred and seek to recover loss from those responsible, if anyone is found guilty of entering into transactions on behalf of EPF for inducements received to be prosecuted and to consider if EPF transactions from 2010 onwards can be investigated. These ‘Recommendations’ while they should be carried out independently and without any further delay, falls short of providing answers to the serious question of how future fraud and corruption could be avoided with the present management system that is now exposed as wholly inadequate and is prone to political meddling and high profile corruption,” the letter states.