Sujeewa gets COPE seat as Velu Kumar steps down

By Chamodi Gunawardana

State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe yesterday confirmed that he had been appointed to the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) following the resignation of United National Party (UNP) MP Velu Kumar. 

MP Kumar had already handed over his resignation to COPE and failed to attend the COPE meeting held on Tuesday to study the Auditor General’s report on Treasury bond issuance.

Joint Opposition member Tissa Vitarana charged that Kumar’s resignation was made to facilitate Senasinghe’s appointment to COPE in order to exonerate former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran of insider trading allegations. Senasinghe denied these charges. 

“Senasinghe should not be appointed to such a responsible committee. There are several fraud allegations against him. He was a person who attempted to safeguard Mahendran while being a member of the previous COPE committee,” he claimed. 

United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians who were COPE members had argued that former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran was not involved in the alleged Treasury bond scam and rejected the Auditor General’s report.

UNP members including Dr. Harsha de Silva, Ajith P. Perera, Ranjan Ramanayake, Harshana Rajakaruna, Hector Appuhamy, Ashok Abeysinghe and Ravindra Samaraweera had insisted that the former Governor could not be held responsible for insider trading. 

COPE members from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) had argued that Mahendran could be responsible for the alleged Treasury bond issue, sources said.  

In response to UNP members defending Mahendran for following Government policy in issuing bonds, the JVP claimed the public had a right to know how such policy had been passed without the approval of the Monetary Board.

COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Weerakumara Dissanayake, Chandrasiri Gajadeera, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Bimal Ratnayake were also present at the meeting.