By Saman Indrajith
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday told Parliament that the government would not cancel the Central Bank transfers and it would further pursue its objective of creating a better banking service to the people.
The PM, responding to a special statement made by MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena, said: After the elections I met with the Governor and the members of the Monetary Board. We are satisfied with the performance of the employees of the Central Bank during the recent past. There are some officials who had held the same position for more than five years. Who had permitted them to stay continuously in the same positions? In addition there are some officials whose efficiency is very low.
We intend to meet Assistant and Deputy Governors of the Central Bank in the coming days to discuss the bank’s performance. Who signed the Hedging Deal and who would be responsible for such deals? Finally, they wasted public funds. We will not let such irregularities happen again.
Opposition MPs shouted at the Premier while he continued to say: There are some MPS who joined the opposition because they could not work with President Maithripala Sirisena. Some of them rode the piggyback to get here. You cannot stand an election alone and win. Do you accept the leadership of President Sirisena? What did you say when you met President Sirisena? You told him that you would sit in the opposition and sought his permission to speak against the government once in a while. The President told me to let those people shout against the government. So, now you can do so. Go on shouting and let me know once you finish.
After the shouting died down, the Premier continued: This is no laughing matter. We lost huge sums of money over the Greek bonds. Who was responsible for that? Greek bonds were purchased using EPF funds which belong to the innocent people of this country. The previous government while swindling the public funds issued false statistics. Some officials actively supported those measures while others responsible kept silent. Those officials have to be transferred.
It is wrong to interpret transfers as taking revenge. Nobody knows who gave evidence against the Governor and the officials summoned before the investigation because the report of the investigation has not been released. If somebody says that those who gave evidence against the Governor have been victimised, then that person is aware of the names of those who gave evidence and their content. That, too, amounts to a violation of parliamentary privileges.
Due to those reasons we intend to appoint a parliamentary select committee to investigate all the deals done by the Central Bank. We should appoint people who were in the bank and new persons. Some contracts were to construct roads but funds were not allocated. We had to pay Rs. 400 billion as compensation for the people who had lost their lands.
We have rebuilt the image of the Central Bank. Now the investors are coming. We will not revoke a single transfer. We will establish a better banking service.
