COPE member and Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said the Central Bank had given Rs. 66 billion to the primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries between February 2015 to March 2016 and added there was a prima facie case against former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran in respect of his tenure as the governor.
Minister Jayasekara
also said the information before the Parliamentary oversight committee COPE
reveals that the Perpetual Treasuries has obtained these loans without any
security and invested them in bonds.
Addressing the weekly
SLFP news conference, Minister Jayasekara said however, after an inquiry
conducted under the new governor on the issue, the Perpetual Treasuries have
been fined for a ridiculous Rs.21 million for the improper transaction.
Minister Jayasekara
said it was extremely unusual and disproportionate that the Perpetual
Properties alone had recorded a profit of 1853% from bond dealing while all
other 15 primary dealers had earned only 37% of profits in 2015 and 2016 and
added former governor Mahendran should not have accepted the governor’s post in
the first place when he was offered it while his son in law was a primary
dealer or at least he should have asked his son in law not to act as a primary
dealer while he was serving as the governor.
He said there must be a
strong fool proof mechanism to deal with this kind of financial
misappropriations involving the public money and the government must direct its
attention on priority basis to bring legislations if the current laws were inadequate
to deal with major financial crimes