PB misleads the President to appoint his batch mate

Thursday, 06 June 2013 

Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera has proposed the name of former Manager of the Bank of Ceylon, W.A. Nalini to the post of National Savings Bank (NSB) Chairman. W.A. Nalini had studied together with Jayasundera at the Colombo University. She has been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Sunil S. Sirisena from the post of NSB Chairman.

Sirisena was under pressure from Jayasundera to secure US$ 1 billion through foreign bonds. However, Sirisena had ignored Jayasundera’s directives and finally had decided to resign from his post in the bank due to continuous pressure.

Therefore, Jayasundera’s friend was appointed as NSB Chairman on June 3rd.

Jayasundera has also re-appointed Deputy Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle as the Finance Ministry representative to the NSB board of directors in order to ensure that the NSB management would carry out his directive to secure a foreign bond of US$ 1 billion.

However, the government is trying to change the members of the board of directors to somehow secure the US$ 1 billion loan that could be used for the government’s operations. When the former NSB Chairman had asked for the government guarantee on the loan risk and the exchange rate risk, Jayasundera had provided a guarantee only for US$ 500 million. Sunil S. Sirisena had therefore continuously told Jayasundera that he could not take an unwanted risk.

The former NSB Chairman had said that out of the total savings of Rs. 422 billion of the bank, 72% was invested in government bonds and could not invest in more bonds. Jayasundera had then told the President, “Sir, Nalini is the person for the job. She did a good job at the Bank of Ceylon. I told her to find US$ 300 million and she raised US$ 500 million. Let’s get rid of Sirisena and appoint Nalini to the post. She will fearlessly raise the US$ 1 billion.”

Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera has continuously told the President to raise foreign loans by showing the balance sheets of the state banks. Accordingly, NDB and DFCC banks are to also raise US$ 250 million from the foreign markets. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake has said that Sri Lanka’s state loan ratio is now 82.6% of the GDP.

Six positions – Rs298,200 monthly

FRIDAY, 07 JUNE 2013

It is revealed that the monthly income of Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama, the Chairman of  Sri Lanka Ports Authority is Rs. 298,200. This was revealed in a response to a question asked by the UNP Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera in Parliament yesterday (6th).

Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama gets a salary of Rs.90,000, Director Board allowance of Rs.30,000 and entertainment allowance of Rs.10,000 from the Port Authority. In addition to this he earns Rs.110,000 monthly as the project director of Mahinda Rajapaksa Port at Hambantota. He also gets monthly Rs.12,500 as the Chairman of Jaya Container Terminal, Rs.28,200 as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Management and Consultancy Services Ltd., Rs.10,000 as a Director of Urban Development Authority and Rs.7,500 as a Director of Waters Edge.

Vehicles, fuel allowances, telephone allowances and expenses for foreign tours have not been included here.