Reply to Mahendran

By Insider

A little over 12 months ago when the current Governor took office, the country’s economy was certainly in a better situation. Today the rupee has depreciated by over 15%, debt has increased by Rs. 30 billion, interest rates on FDs are now 10% and retail lending is over 12%. 

What does this tell us? Poor economic management. The CB Governor costs the taxpayer a lot of money. The Governor lives in a stately house in Colombo 7, valued at over Rs. 500 million, his stately S class Benz must be worth over Rs. 30 million; this is excluding all the other perks he enjoys at the Hilton, etc. In return he needs to ensure the country’s economy is managed well. When he does not do that well, we citizens have a right to demand for better performance and question his performance. He cannot hide behind his friendship with the Prime Minister – a favourite past-time of his. 

In his reply he says he says the former Governor had caused a loss of over a billion rupees. What has he done to prosecute Nivard Cabral for that? Yoshitha Rajapaksa was arrested for a lesser financial crime. Then on the EPF investments, he is totally silent. Has he investigated all those controversial transactions? It was only yesterday that it was reported the fund had lost billions due to poor investments. The Bond controversy – the public has lost count of them, whether it is the first, second or the third. Can the public see the COPE findings?

It may wise for the Government to do a full audit of all his expenditure on his foreign travel including those who accompanied him in the last 12 months to ensure that due process is being followed at the Central Bank. If this is done, we the citizens will stand up and salute the Government.