• Opines appointment cannot be accepted prior to investigations on revelation in forensic audit about Cabraal

MP Eran Wickramaratne

Samagi Jana Bala-wegaya MP Eran Wickramaratne on Saturday said that the impending appointment of Nivard Cabraal as the Governor of the Central Bank (CBSL) cannot be accepted prior to investigations on revelation in the forensic audit about the latter.

Wickramaratne said CBSL Governor Prof. W.D. Lakshman he would resign tomorrow and that he certainly has the freedom to do so. “But our concern is that a former CBSL Governor may be appointed and if there is any truth in it, it is totally unacceptable.”Addressing the media at his political office at Kirulapone, Wickramaratne said that central banks are always independent of the governments and they are not a department of governments. Their primary responsibilities are looking at the stability of the financial system, and secondly, making sure the inflation is under control. Therefore, the CBSL needs to have the independence to ensure these policies.

“The former CBSL Governor is a politician more than a Minister in the present Government. It is very clear if you are a politician or a Minister, you cannot be appointed to become the CBSL Governor. Usually, a very experienced official from the bank can aspire to be appointed. If he is an outsider, he should have economic and monetary economic backgrounds. 

“Some might hide behind and think that by resigning from the ministerial post, they could become the CBSL Governor. It cannot be done as there is a conflict of interest. That is impossible to do. There has to be a cooling period before such an appointment is made,” he said.

He went on to explain that there was, in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Bond Scam, a requirement to have a forensic audit on the transactions that took place between January 2002 and 28 February 2015. There are five forensic reports done by reputed institutes, such as PDO and KPMG, that talk about the conflicts of interest where many members of Cabraal’s family were in various financial institutions during the time Cabraal was the Governor. 

It reveals a potential conflict of interest noted between July 2006 to January 2015. Retired Deputy Governor W.A. Wijewardene had confirmed that there had been a conflict of interest and Mano Ramanathan also revealed to the Forensic Committee that no declaration was made to the Monetary Board about the conflict of interest as required by the law.

“Under this context, Cabraal is very unsuitable to be the CBSL Governor before the Government investigates the revelations in the forensic audit reports about the involvements of Cabraal. I, as the State Minister for Finance, could not follow it up as these reports came out at the end of 2019. But this Government has tried to sweep these reports under the carpet. That is not possible as these are forensic audits that came through a Presidential Commission, and they must be investigated,” Wickramaratne said.

In addition to that, he said, anyone can read on the internet that on 18 February, a report talks about a political donor who was sentenced to imprisonment for 12 years in the US for the crime committed by him for lobbying and campaign contribution crime. The Government had hired this person, Zuberi, in 2014 for an image-building project for Sri Lanka in the US and had agreed to pay him $ 8.5 million. “We have paid $ 6.5 million to Zuberi but nothing came out from him.”

Wickramaratne asked as to who paid this money. It had to be approved by the Cabinet or by the Government, he said, but there had been no such approval and it was paid by the CBSL. “Who in the CBSL was responsible for this? Did the Monetary Board know about it? The then CBSL Governor is responsible, and these must be investigated. How can a Government even consider appointing a person like that again as the CBSL Governor?” the SJB MP asked.

He emphasised that a country is more important than an individual. Commercial banks, international agencies, and rating agencies will be concerned, said Wickramaratne, expressing confidence that the Government would make the right decision.

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