Day 2: Stormy 11 hour meeting as COPE finalises CB bond issue report

• UNP MPs claim lapses in the Auditor General’s findings need to be corrected
• JVP, SLFP and JO MPs want draft finalised without page-by-page scrutiny
•  “Chaos, absolute chaos,” Dr Harsha De Silva tweets about COPE meeting

By Dharisha Bastians

Pandemonium reigned inside the committee rooms of Parliament for 11 hours yesterday, as the 31-member Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) tried for a second day to finalise its report on the Central Bank Treasury Bond auctions between February 2015 and March 2016. 

COPE met for the second consecutive day to try and finalise the report amid allegations that UNP MPs in the parliamentary oversight committee were seeking to change the draft to absolve former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran of wrongdoing in the CBSL’s controversial Treasury bond issue during his term in office.

“Chaos, absolute chaos,” tweeted Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha De Silva, who is a member of COPE, during the reportedly stormy meeting that continued well past 8PM.

Thursday’s meeting to finalise the draft had also lasted seven hours, with Committee members deciding to study the draft by paragraph. Eleven pages of the 45 page draft had been discussed on Thursday, with the scrutiny set to resume last morning from Page 12, Daily FT learns.

The UNP was taking issue with lapses in the report by the Auditor General, whose findings were to be included in the final COPE report on the CBSL Bond issue.

The JVP and members of the SLFP and the Joint Opposition, led by UPFA MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage viewed the UNP objections as an attempt to absolve the controversial ex-Governor, and insisted on finalising the report without page-by-page scrutiny.

A group of members led by Aluthgamage walked out of the meeting but returned a few minutes later, Daily FT learns.  The Committee hopes to present its report on the controversial CBSL bond issue to Parliament on 25 October.