CB bond issue report presented to House

Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) today tabled in Parliament the final report of the Central Bank (CB) Treasury Bonds probe  which concluded that former   Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran was directly responsible for the questionable bond transaction and recommended that legal action be taken against him and other CB officials involved in it.

In his address to Parliament, Mr. Handunnetti said that while all members agreed to the 15 recommendations of the report, there was a dissenting opinion in the report.

He said that out of the 26 members in COPE, 16 members endorsed the report without footnotes, whereas 9 members endorsed it with footnotes.

The 16 members who endorsed it without footnotes include JVP MPs Sunil Handunnetti,  Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Bimal Ratnayake, Dr Nalinda Jayatissa, UPFA MPs Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lakshman Seneviratne, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Chandrasiri Gajadheera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Weerakumara Dissanayake, UNP MP Rauf Hakeem, and TNA MPs S Sritharan, M A Sumanthiran, Gnanamuthu Srineshan and Mavai Senathirajah.

The 9 members who endorsed it with footnotes include Dr Harsha de Silva, Ajith P Perera, Sujeewa Senasinghe, Hector Appuhamy, Ravindra Samaraweera, Wasantha Aluvihare, Ashok Abeysinghe, Abdullah Maharoof and Hashanah Rajakaruna. UNP MP Ranjan Ramanayake had not taken either of side.  (CK)