28 October 2016 10:27 pm
“It was after a COPE directive to the Central Bank that it provided those documents. There were elements attempting to influence COPE from within even after receiving the documents. Today we have been able to submit a comprehensive report despite the obstacles,” JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said.
He told a news conference that it was up to the Government including the Prime Minister to take action on the recommendations made in the COPE report and added that the JVP was closely monitoring the government’s reaction to the report.
Mr. Dissanayake said the JVP was committed to ensuring that legal action would be taken against the culprits and the losses incurred in the bond scam be recovered.
“The government’s responsibility is to forward the recommendation of the COPE report to Attorney General to take action,” he said.
Mr. Dissanayake said the JVP condemned the government’s move to accuse the media of revealing certain facts on the COPE investigations into the Central Bank bond controversy and added that it should investigate the facts revealed by the media rather than pointing fingers at them.
He said the government had started to target the media so as to prevent the corruption withing the government being revealed.
“The government should say if the facts revealed by the media are true rather than pointing fingers at the media. The government is targeting the media to prevent the corruption involved in providing expressway tenders and the coal deal being revealed,” Mr. Dissanayake said.
He said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had instructed the Central Bank Governor to adopt an auction when issuing bonds instead of the direct place system according to the evidence given by Mr. Mahendran.
“Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has also to be faulted on this matter. He had also attempted to suppress the investigations,” Mr. Dissanayake claimed. (Ajith Siriwardana)