Ranil has his say on bond scam

By Madushka Balasuriya

At the AMCHAM luncheon meeting yesterday Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had his say on the contentious Government Treasury bond issue which occurred during Arjuna Mahendran’s tenure as Central Bank Governor.  

Q: “Eran Wickramaratne said after 8 January 2015 we are a democratic nation, we can ask you anything. Mr. Prime Minister there was an issue with the former governor of the Central Bank, the bond scam. After we all thought for the umpteenth time that it was done and dusted, the President has now appointed a new committee to look into it. It just keeps coming back, what’s happening?

RW: “This is a democratic country. Just as much as you can ask any question, I can refuse to answer any question. [Audience laughter] Which I won’t do because it shows that this is a transparent government. [applause] When the allegation was made, it went to the Supreme Court, which proceeded to throw out the case I appointed a committee and the committee said the transaction required further investigation and then COPE took it over. I said we’ll have a member of the Opposition chair it, and all the members of COPE gave a unanimous report. On the reasoning there were differences of opinion, some came on as footnotes, but everyone agreed. And I said as soon as that was presented I said we’ll fix a date for a debate in Parliament. This is what happens in a democracy. 

This whole process has also shown the need for new laws. Do you know that we have been taking bonds from 2008 via private placement and there is no legal authority? We can only take from captive sources, but we have taken from private dealers. Fortunately the Monetary Law Act protects any bond in the hands of a bona fide purchaser, so none of you are at risk. But this just shows the many shortcomings over the years.

The Greek bonds were not investigated, the hedging bonds were not investigated, everything else was not investigated, this is the only one that was investigated. Now I’m waiting for every media [outlet] to give me one minute and say: ‘you did the correct thing, others didn’t,’ but you (media) can’t do it because you (media) went and ate at his table!”

Q: Mr. Prime Minister is the former governor of the Central Bank [Arjuna Mahendran] your friend?

RW: The former governor is a friend, the present governor (Indrajit Coomaraswamy] is a friend, the one before that [Ajith Nivard Cabraal] is an acquaintance.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara