Will Legal Action be taken to recover bonds scam loss? Corruption Watchdogs express concern

By Gagani Weerakoon-2018-01-19

Anti-corruption activists are now raising concerns as to whether legal action could be taken against the infamous Perpetual Treasuries Limited, to recover the losses the Government incurred as a result of selling Treasury Bonds between 2015 February to March 2016.

These Watchdog groups claim that the report of the Presidential Commission, that investigated the alleged Bonds scam, which was sent to Parliament on Wednesday (17), lacks certain information contained in the comprehensive report.

What was released to the public, they point out, was only the Executive Summary. The entire report comprising 20,000 pages in three volumes has yet to be sent to the Speaker, official sources said.
What the Speaker has is only Volume One, they added.

The activists are also urging President Maithripala Sirisena to appoint the second Presidential Commission immediately, which would be effective to investigate and recover the profits made by PTL from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 too.

President of the Voice Against Corruption (VAC) Wasantha Samarasinghe said they have doubts about recovering the losses the Government incurred as a result of the issuances of the controversial Treasury Bonds,......as the Presidential Commission was only mandated to investigate auctions that took place between February 2015 and 31 March 2016.

"The profit earned by the Perpetual Treasuries from February 2015 to March 2017 amounts to a total of Rs 18,224 million, whereas the PCoI, report, has only out down the loss to Rs 11,937 million. That is because the commission was not mandated to investigate bond auctions held after March 2016. Whatever the profit made by PTL is a loss to the Government. We have doubts that someone would be able to challenge the commission's report in Court once the Government initiate legal action against the PTL and Arjun Aloysius," he said.

Samarasinghe noted that Arjuna Mahendran functioned as the Governor of the Central Bank till July 2016 and the CBSL suspended PTL as a primary dealer only in July 2017."The profit made by PTL for the six-month period, from April to September 2016 alone, is Rs 6,813 million. There is a question whether this amount falls under the mandate of this commission or not. By March 2017 PTL has recorded a total profit of Rs 18,225 million. We urge the President to either extend this commission as the second one or appoint a new commission to recover the total amount, lost by the Government up to March 2017, from Arjun Aloysius and PTL. It should not be kept for the next government," he added. Meanwhile, Executive Director of CaFFE Keerthi Tennakoon, in a letter sent to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday, while pointing out that only a lesser portion of the Bonds Commission Report (which has three volumes) has been submitted to Parliament by the Presidential Secretariat, has urged the latter to take action to distribute the salient documents and annexure for the Parliamentarians."The MPs should have at least the CID forensic report, an annexure referred to as C-350 in the report based on which the commission has made certain recommendations, for them to be able to study and analyze before engaging in any debate," the letter stated.