{"id":42047,"date":"2015-07-07T17:26:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T21:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42047"},"modified":"2015-07-07T17:26:35","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T21:26:35","slug":"ranil-wickremesinghe-blasts-d-e-w-gunesekera-over-releasing-documents-relating-to-cope-probe-on-treasury-bonds-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42047","title":{"rendered":"Ranil Wickremesinghe Blasts D.E.W.Gunesekera Over Releasing Documents Relating to COPE Probe on Treasury Bonds Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday slammed former Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman and MP D.E.W. Gunesekera for violating the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act and using his position as head of the legislative oversight committee to gain political advantage. <\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe has already written to the Secretary General of Parliament and the Speaker saying MP Gunesekera was in contravention of Section 22 of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act by his conduct last week to make public documents under the purview of the COPE subcommittee probing the Central Bank bond issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Act prohibits the publication of any proceedings in any Committee of Parliament before they report to the House and also guilty of publishing a false and perverted report of the proceedings of a Committee of Parliament and punishable under Section 22 of the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act,\u201d Wickremesinghe told the Speaker in his letter.<\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe told reporters yesterday that with the dissolution of Parliament, Gunesekera had ceased to be a MP. \u201cThe only three positions still active and authorised to deal with Parliamentary matters are the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Opposition Leader,\u201d he explained. \u201cOther than these three, no one else has the authority to release documents pertaining to Parliamentary matters,\u201d Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

He said the documents released by the former COPE Chairman were put forward by Gunesekera himself, and were not official COPE reports.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jekyll and Hyde role that D.E.W. Gunesekera has played here must be exposed,\u201d the Premier charged. <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister pledged to conclude a full investigation into the Central Bank bond issue within three months of the new Parliament sitting, and that the probe would cover other scandals dogging the financial regulator since the time of the previous regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Parliamentary Select Committee will be appointed to go into the bond issue and other Central Bank frauds. We must protect public funds, otherwise there is no point in us being here,\u201d the Prime Minister said.<\/p>\n

He said that if Perpetual Treasuries, the company linked to Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran\u2019s son-in-law Arjun Aloysius was faulted, the company\u2019s license could be cancelled.
\nMahendran and the UNP are under a cloud over the alleged bond scam, which the Opposition is keen to make a key campaign issue at the forthcoming Parliamentary poll.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister accused the COPE Chairman of acting in haste to protect the former regime. \u201cThat is why I was not summoned before COPE to testify,\u201d Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a great many scandals at Central Bank during the previous regime, at all those times the Chairman of COPE was in deep slumber,\u201d the Prime Minister charged.<\/p>\n

He also slammed Gunesekera for saying COPE was not empowered to summon ministers.
\n\u201cThis is not the case. Select committees can summon any minister and even prime ministers \u2013 in fact if COPE failed to summon me, I would have told Parliament that I wanted to testify in the Central Bank bond probe,\u201d Wickremesinghe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cD.E.W. Gunesekera has lied to the press,\u201d the Premier charged.<\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe also charged that COPE findings Gunesekera had made public were not part of an official report by the committee. \u201cAll COPE documentation were under lock and key in Parliament by the Secretary General,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said that the COPE Chairman had hurriedly summoned meetings of the committee on 25 and 26 June in full knowledge that several members were involved in election work and also had been summoned for meetings with the President.<\/p>\n

Wickremesinghe insisted that he had insisted on reverting to the auction-based sale of bonds, after the previous Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal had pursued the policy of direct placements in contravention of Debt Department manuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this bond sale there was one direct placement and I pulled the Governor up for that,\u201d Wickremesinghe admitted. \u201cI told him \u2018what are you doing when we have promised to set up transparent government?\u2019\u201d the Premier claimed.<\/p>\n

At the UNP\u2019s Sirikotha Headquarters yesterday, the Prime Minister allowed reporters to observe a briefing he had requested from party members who also sat on COPE \u2013 Eran Wickramaratne, Rosy Senanayake and SujeewaSenasinghe. <\/p>\n

UNP MPs in COPE speak up; vow to take legal action against DEW <\/strong><\/p>\n

At the UNP\u2019s Sirik-otha Headquarters yesterday, the Prime Minister allowed reporters to observe a briefing he had requested from party members who also sat on COPE \u2013 MPs Sujeewa Senasinghe, Eran Wickramaratne and Rosy Senanayake. <\/p>\n

The MPs told the Premier at the briefing that the \u2018report\u2019 being circulated by Gunesekera was a document summarising nearly 400 pages of evidence gathered during the COPE probe of the Central Bank bond scandal. <\/p>\n

Three drafts of the same document had been circulated among COPE members on Thursday 25 June, one day before Parliament was dissolved, Senasinghe told the Prime Minister. <\/p>\n

UNP members in the Committee had challenged some sections of the document, but Gunesekera had been unyielding insisting that the report be tabled in Parliament, even though there was no agreement, Senasinghe claimed. <\/p>\n

He added that COPE sub committees could not report to Parliament but only to the main committee, which was empowered to put facts before the Members of the House. <\/p>\n

Senasinghe said he was planning to take legal action against the former COPE Chairman about his violation of proceedings and partisan conduct. <\/p>\n

Former MP Wickramaratne told the Prime Minister that several members of COPE had been absent at Friday\u2019s meetings and never even saw the three drafts the Chairman had put forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn an investigation like this, there cannot be an interim report, because this is one issue we are going into and you can only issue an interim report based on completed facts,\u201d the former banker told the Premier.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday slammed former Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman and MP D.E.W. Gunesekera for violating the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act and using his position as head of the legislative oversight committee to gain political advantage. Wickremesinghe has already written to the Secretary General of Parliament and the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ranil Wickremesinghe Blasts D.E.W.Gunesekera Over Releasing Documents Relating to COPE Probe on Treasury Bonds Issue’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42048,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047\/revisions\/42048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}