Free Lawyers want select committee to probe $ 2.5 million heist

Colombo, June 16 (Daily Mirror) - Free Lawyers Association, in letters addressed to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne had suggested setting up a select committee to probe the $ 2.5 million heist and other scams involved with the treasury.

The letter, signed by joint conveners of Free Lawyers Maithri Gunaratne and Athula de Silva had requested them to appoint a select committee to probe the heists and come up with recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future.

In their letter, the Free Lawyers have revealed that the $ 2.5 million has actually gone into an account held by Mish Global LLC at TD Bank USA. The heist was revealed when the emails which involves the transaction bounced back.

“The amount involved in the heist is said to be $ 2,509,430, while the amount was claimed to be $ 203,417, according to the Auditor General. In such a situation, it is clear that neither the Central Bank nor the Finance Ministry has proper knowledge and understanding of the heist. Also, it has been reported that the Public Debt Management Office, which was to be set up under the Public Debt Management Act, was ready for operations, though the regulations of this institution were not fully ready. Resettlement of debts and treasury bonds was begun under the Central Bank. However, there has been no proper coordination between the Central Bank and Finance Ministry. We, the Free Lawyers, made inquiries from the Speaker on the alleged manipulation of the internal inquiry and on transfers of officers at the Finance Ministry. However, no one in Parliament has replied to us. Both the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) and Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) had failed to come up with any report on the probe they have conducted on it,” Free Lawyer said in its letters to the President and the Speaker. The heist is an example of unprofessional handling of affairs by officers attached to the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry,” the letters said.

“There have been more financial scams that have been reported during the past few days. These include the disappearance of Rs 625,000 from the Postal Department, double payments of Aswesuma and the Rs 13.2 billion scam at the National Development Bank (NDB),” the letter added.