SEC Chief says no division

In response to the Daily FT’s article yesterday titled ‘SEC split?’ SEC Chairman Tilak Karunaratne has sent the following statement.

I, as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC), write in reply to the front page main article in the Daily FT of 13 August 2012 under the heading ‘SEC Split?’

In the aforesaid article the writer has stated that “The Daily FT learns that several Commissioners have objected to the Chairman’s proposal saying Dissabandara isn’t fully competent to function in a permanent role. If he was to be made permanent prior approval from Ministry of Finance must be obtained, some of the dissenting Commissioners had emphasised. There had been differences of opinion over the duration of his tenure if considered for permanency as well. Chairman had proposed two years initially.”

As the Chairman of the SEC, I would like to categorically refute the above statement. The proposal made by me which was discussed at the 304th Commission meeting held on 9 August 2012 was to recommend the Honourable Minster of Finance to confirm Prof. Hareendra Dissabandara in the post of Director General of the SEC. There was a discussion on this matter amongst the Commissioners without any other person being present and the final decision was to recommend to the Hon. Minister of Finance to appoint Prof. Hareendra Dissabandara as the Director General of the SEC initially for a period of one year.

I also state that there was no division in the Commission on this decision and all seven Commissioners present unanimously approved the decision as stated above. Two Commissioners were absent at this meeting.

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