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Wednesday, 19 February 2020 02:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Chandani Kirinde
Government and Opposition MPs clashed yesterday over the legality of the forensic audit reports prepared as part of the investigation into the Central Bank bond scam by an Indian audit company as a two-day parliamentary debate on the subject got underway.
State Minister for Power and Renewable Energy Mahindananda Aluthgamage who opened the debate on behalf of the Government said the audit reports were prepared to give a clean chit to former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and to deflect attention away from the massive bond scam in which he was involved.
“The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) commissioned this audit report to clear Ranil Wickremesinghe’s name. Lawyers who appeared for the UNP leader at the Presidential Commission appointed to look in the scam are the ones who suggested that forensic audit be done. The CBSL hired a questionable Indian audit company and spent Rs. 200 million on a useless report,” Aluthgamage said.
He said that forensic audits have to be prepared in such a way that legal action can be instituted against wrongdoers by using its findings, but these reports are useless. The Auditor General could have done a better job. These reports have no legal basis and a corrupt Indian company was hired to prepare these reports. They are only for use by CBSL and the Monetary Board,” he said.
JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti who moved the adjournment motion in Parliament said audit companies are specialised to do this kind of report and the Auditor General himself in his report on the bond transactions done during 2015-2016 recommended that a specialised institution be roped in to do the forensic audit.
“There are some who are finding all kinds of excuses to question the validity of the reports because all transaction from 2005 onwards were probed. There is nothing wrong in examining the whole process without limiting it to period when a certain Government was in power.
“A major financial crime has taken place in the country and it is time for action without trying to separate the report into the period that Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power and Ranil Wickremasinghe was in power,” he said.
The JVP MP, who is also the Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (CoPE), said that there are adequate details in the five reports using which legal action can be instituted. “If the Government is serious about catching those who were involved in the 2015-2016 bond scam, they can use the contents of the fourth report which deals specifically with that period and press charges without questioning the veracity of these reports. These are very detailed reports,” the JVP MP said.
UNP MP Pataki Champika Ranawaka who spoke during the debate said that CBSL had used the EPF funds to keep interest rates low from 2008 and had thus deprived private sector employees that contribute to the EPF of getting high interest for their contribution.
“There is also a structural issue here. CBSL controls both the EPF fund as well as Public Debt Department. The EPF is looking to invest its funds to get the highest interest while the Public Debt Department is entrusted with obtaining loans for the government at the lowest interest.
“There is a conflict of interest here and we need to place the EPF under an independent institution. The report also shows that the 2015 and 2016 scams are not isolated incidents and that the Government must look at all these instances and determine who had benefitted from them,” he said.
UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said that Rs. 9.8 billion of EPF funds was embezzled during the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration through the issuance of Treasury Bonds and had siphoned off the money by creating 18 bogus companies and losses could not be recovered. He said the losses caused by Perpetual Treasuries was recovered by seizing their assets.
