Golden Key case

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Supreme Court yesterday (1) listed for mention on 4 March the motion seeking to direct the Committee of Chartered Accountants, appointed by Court in respect of Golden Key matter, to tender forthwith Audited Statements of Accounts.

The Bench comprised Justices S.I. Imam and Suresh Chandra. The petitioner P.P. Anura Gunawardene in his motion is seeking the Court to direct the Committee of Chartered Accountants to disclose specific details of expenditure incurred by them in relation to their budgets.

He is also seeking the Court to direct all parties to maintain the status-quo (existing state of affairs) without any material change, including disposal of any asset for a short period of time, to enable independent experienced competent person/s to examine and report on the Business Plan including relevant matters connected therewith, taking into cognisance the observations made by the Court thereon.



He cited the Monetary Board of the Central Bank, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Treasury Secretary Sumith Abeysinghe, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivaard Cabraal and the Golden Key Credit Card Company Limited as well as Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawala, Khavan Perera, Sicille Kotelawala, Daniel Jegasothy, Padmini Karunanayake, Suramya Karunanayak, Bandula Ranaweera, Niranjan Fernando and Saradha Sumanasekara of Ceylinco Centre as well as Ceylinco Consolidated (Private) Ltd., and the Attorney General as Respondents.

The Committee of Chartered Accountants had been appointed on 18 May 2009 to function as Officers of Court, without incurring any personal liability, to:

(a) Examine the lists of assets and properties compiled by Officials of the Central Bank on the basis of the declarations made and any other information furnished by any of the parties to the Application and compile list of the (i) immediately realisable assets; (ii) assets that are realisable in the medium term; and (iii) assets that are realisable in the long term

(b) Prepare a scheme whereby these assets could be brought into a common account from which disbursements could be made to the depositors.

(c) Compile a list of the depositors and formulate a scheme of payment.