Conflict of interest at CSE - Letter

According to recent newspaper reports, Mr. Nihal Fonseka, Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange has written to the Apollo Hospitals, inquiring from them details of certain concessions allowed by the BOI to Apollo Hospital.

One needs to question whether Mr. Fonseka should get involved in this dispute as he could be considered an interested party and thus there is a conflict of interest issue here.

It is public knowledge that Mr. Fonseka is the Chief Executive of the DFCC Bank which is a Harry Jayawardena-controlled company.

The public of this country wishes to have in places such as CSE and the Securities & Exchange Commission individuals possessing high ethical and professional standards, without business interests likely to conflict with the duties they are expected to carry out. If standards are allowed to deteriorate investor confidence naturally would get eroded leading to a drop in all indices and share prices. This should never be allowed to happen.

C.X. Nesarajah
Colombo