Finally the latest delaying tactic employed by the previous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government was presented to parliament. The Forensic Reports into the issuance of bonds by the Central Bank,
Frankly we are not much better off in terms of knowledge than we were when the Presidential Commission released their report.
If anything at all, the information contained within the Forensic Reports vindicates the information and investigative work carried out in particular by the Capital Maharaja media asset, News1st. For close to five years they have put out regular coverage of the greatest financial heist in independent Sri Lanka. Programmes such as Pathikada, Newsline Live, Face The Nation, Dawasa and Satana covered the matter regularly and were single handedly responsible for keeping the scam at the top of the news, week in week out. The coverage was relentless. It was said of Newsline that even if the topic was global warming the host would find an avenue to naturally talk of the bond scam.
The words “departure from due process” became oft used. The bond scam gave billions of state monies to a very select few. That select few became cash rich beyond their natural imagination and their natural stations in life.
Part of the delaying tactic was to focus on all bond issuances since 2002. It would have been far more expeditious if they had started initially with the greatest financial scam ever inflicted on independent Sri Lanka in 2015. This matter was the real hot topic and should have been dealt with immediately. Once that was safely out of the way there would have been a greater support-base from the public if issues pre-2015 were looked into.
Instead Ranil Wickremesinghe engaged in a near five year odyssey. The statement in parliament that famous “I insisted on the change” speech, followed by the Pitipana Committee, followed by COPE 1, followed by parliamentary dissolution, followed by COPE 2, followed by the Presidential Commission, followed by the promise of Forensic Reports commissioned by the very organisation being investigated the Central Bank, followed by an attempt to withhold the reports from the public, followed by the release minus the attachments. And to date the Presidential Secretariat even under the new President has been silent on the missing pages of the Commission of Inquiry. We are never sure if they were archived or simply not released publicly.
Surely we must aver must we not that if one has nothing to hide the investigation ought to have been clarity and expeditiousness at its best. Not the delays that we the people have been subject too.
What has become clear in this matter is that the Monetary Board custodians of the intent of the Monetary Law Act have done a Rip Van Winkle (gone to sleep) and have been muddle headed. They were asleep whilst Governor Cabraal was fulfilling urgently required infrastructure investments that his political masters had embarked upon principally between 2008 and 2014. Not once did the Monetary Board raise the issue of formalising the issuance of bonds by direct placement to the private funds of primary dealerships – a facility previously reserved for captive state funds. It was clear the government of the day required the funds but had overlooked the formality of Monetary Board approval at least to complete the books of procedure.
The events of February 2015 and beyond were quite different. There was zero new infrastructure projects by comparison, the fugitive Governor had embarked on a solo mission acting as a virtual dictator changing established procedure for the least cost methodology of raising funds for the treasury all the time ensuring that his disclosure of sensitive information accrued billions in profits for a corporate in the ownership of his son in law’s family.
Sri Lanka has missed yet another opportunity as they are uncannily good at. This was a chance to highlight that the judiciary and accountability was alive and well. Instead, thanks to the antics – mainly to sustain and perpetuate power and privilege for a few – of the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has yet again proven how corrupt it is and how well adept it is at engaging in covering up its sins. And to hell with the wishes of the people.
The last bastion of hope comes in the shape and form of an almost unlikely ally: Gothabya Rajapaksa. He was bold enough to write it in his manifesto – that the responsible ones will be brought to book.
Enough is enough. We have enough evidence to let the judiciary decide the fate of all of us in Sri Lanka and one who has flown the nest.
President Gothabya, Sri Lanka expects – nay, demands – that you act. Fast.