Special Parliamentary session likely this week

Parliament is likely to hold a special session this week to debate the Central Bank scam as requested by political parties, it is learnt.

The Business Committee of Parliament will meet tomorrow under the chair of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to fix a date for the purpose. Later, a decision is to be taken to hold a session this week.

After President Maithripala Sirisena made a statement on the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission that investigated the bond scam, political entities such as the Joint Opposition and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had requested Speaker Jayasuriya to convene an urgent session of the House to debate this matter.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also requested the Speaker to convene Parliament ahead of its scheduled dates.

The Commission, in its report said that Perpetual Treasuries (PTL) Limited made a minimum profit not less than Rs.688 million in the controversial bond transaction that took place on February 27, 2015.

As revealed during the investigations, PTL made an undue profit of Rs 11 billion in the secondary market. In this, the Employees Provident Fund and other government institutions had lost more than Rs. 8.5 billion.

The Commission recommended that the Monetary Board and Central Bank Governor must be appointed by the Constitutional Council in concurrence of the members.

The report recommends that there should be the highest levels of supervision over the Public Debt Department. (Kelum Bandara)