COPE Report: Legal action by AG only after CID completes probe

The Attorney General has informed the Speaker that he would have to take legal action against those responsible for the bond issue only after the CID investigations on it are completed.

He has said this in a letter addressed to the Speaker after receiving the report of the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).

"An investigation based on a complaint to the police is a pre-requisite to initiate criminal proceedings against any person or institution under the aforesaid provision or any other law," the AG said in his letter. "In addition to aforesaid civil and criminal remedies, the Central Bank is entitled to exercise regulatory powers over primary dealers in terms of regulation 11(2) and 12 of the Registered Stocks and Securities (Primary Dealers) Regulations No. 1 of 2009 and section 21D of the Registered Stocks and Securities Ordinance and also under section 56A of the Ordinance and the Code of Conduct of Primary Dealers."

Meanwhile, Speaker Jayasuriya informed the House that he had sent the COPE report to the Attorney General. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)