Now, JVP spares PM and blames President for appointing Mahendran

January 20, 2018, 12:44 pm 

The JVP says President Maithripala Sirisena should take the full responsibility for appointing a Singaporean as the Governor of the Central Bank.

Addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters yesterday, JVP MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary watchdog committee – COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) Sunil Handunnetti said the President, as the person who signed Arjuna Mahendran’s appointment letter, should take the blame for what Mahendran had done at the Central Bank.

"The President now says he opposed appointing Mahendran to the post of Central Bank Governor, having signed Mahendran’s appointment letter. The President cannot absolve himself of the blame for appointing a foreign national as the Central Bank Governor. Even the Prime Minister stated before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that investigated the bond scams that it was the President who had appointed Mahendran to the post of Central Bank Governor."

MP Handunnetti said that according to the bond commission report, the Prime Minister giving evidence before the commission had stated that when the new government came to power in January 2015, there was a consensus within the government to appoint Mahendran to the post of governor of the Central Bank. According to the submission made by the Prime Minister, he had discussed the matter with the then Finance Minister who had agreed that Mahendran was the most suitable person for the post of Governor Central Bank. Thereafter, with the Finance Minister’s agreement, Mahendran’s name was recommended to the President for the post. On that recommendation, the President appointed Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank. "That was what the Prime Minister told before the Bond Commission. The bond commission has expressed their concerns over the appointment of a foreign national to the post of Governor of the Central Bank," MP Handunnetti said, adding that President Sirisena who appointed Mahendran to the top most place in the Central Bank should share the blame for what Mahendran did and did not do as the Central Bank Governor including the latter’s involvement in the bond scam.