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CB to reveal missing sections of bond audit report
View(s):The Central Bank will forward the complete forensic audits on the Treasury bond issue to Parliament together with annexures and exhibits, Governor W.D. Lakshman told the Sunday Times yesterday.
He said that in line with a request made by Parliament, the CB’s Monetary Board had approved releasing the complete forensic audits to Parliament.
The decision to forward the complete forensic audit reports to Parliament comes after MPs from both the Government and Opposition raised issue this week that the reports they had been provided with did not contain the relevant annexures and exhibits.
Parliament this week decided to allocate two days in its first sitting week in February for a debate on the forensic audits.
MPs, however, argued that they needed to have the complete forensic audits before that as they could not make a proper assessment of the situation in the absence of complete reports.
Accordingly, following a directive by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, Parliament Secretary General Dhammika Dasanayake wrote to the Central Bank Governor on Friday noting that the forensic audit reports tabled in Parliament this week were incomplete and requesting the complete reports.
The Speaker announced on Tusday that the forensic audits, conducted by international consulting agencies, would be tabled in Parliament and all MPs would be given copies.
The reports cover the period of two Governments. They expose links between former CB Governor Arjun Mahendran and Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, the company owned by his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius. They also raise conflict of interest issues pertaining to former CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal.
The reports further note that Sri Lanka is likely to have lost up to Rs. 10.4 billion during direct placements of bonds made bypassing auctions between 2005 and 2015.