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Up to president to act on COPE report: DEW
Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises Chairman DEW Gunasekara said today it was up to the President Maithripala Sirisena to obtain a copy of the report of the sub-committee that probed the controversial sale of Central Bank bonds and take appropriate action.
He added that the mandate of the COPE sub-committee was not to find any one guilty or exonerate.
Mr. Gunasekara told a media conference that he was keen to clarify the conflicting media reports and comments by politicians. He said subcommittee was of the view that the sale of the international sovereign bonds worth Rs.10 billion would have been more beneficial if it was transacted at a lower rate of interest.
Commenting on the remarks made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on not being summoned by the committee, Mr. Gunasekara said Mr. Wickremesinghe should have known better.
He said COPE was mandated to inquire into questionable deals of public enterprises and summon only officials working there but has no authority to summon ministers.
"The Central Bank was was earlier supposed to sell Rs.1 billion of bonds but the amount was increased to Rs.10 billion at the auction," Mr. Gunasekera said and added that the interest rate derived from the auction was much higher than the rate indicated by the Central Bank to the primary dealers before the auction. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
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