JVP demands resignation of CB Governor 

By Dasun Edirisinghe-March 10, 2015, 7:42 pm

The JVP yesterday demanded the resignation of Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran in view of the investigation being conducted into the alleged shady deal relating to the ten-billion-rupee bond issue to a company owned by his nephew on Feb. 27, 2015.

Addressing a media conference at the party head office, JVP Colombo District MP Sunil Handunnetti said that if the Central Bank Governor would not resign, the President should remove him from the post until investigations were over.

"Former Rajapaksa regime strengthened the family regime, but we are furious that this government, too, is given into nepotism," Handunnetti said.

He said President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a three-member committee to probe the controversial sale of Rs. 10 billion Treasury bonds at 12. 5 per cent interest instead of an earlier decision to issue one billion rupees worth of bonds at 9.5 per cent interest.

The Colombo District parliamentarian alleged that the private company owned by CB Governor’s nephew had carried out shady deals with the former government, too, and those were to be probed by the incumbent government.

Now, the CB Governor had said that his nephew had resigned from the company when he (Arjuna Mahendran) assumed duties as CB Governor; the JVP MP said, adding that if so they should reveal who were the current owners and directors of the company.

Handunnetti charged that the private company known as Perpetual Treasuries (Pvt) Ltd. was in any case not eligible to buy five billion rupees worth of Treasury bonds as a single company according to existing regulations.

He said that the government without shame had argued that they sold those Treasury bonds to pay projects launched by the previous government, and the matter had been discussed the previous day by its ministers, including Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Highways Minister Kabir Hashim.Yet there was no necessity to rush and buy at such high interest, when there were other avenues.

"If this incident had happened in any other country, the Finance Minister too would have resigned," he said adding that such shady deals would affect the country’s economy in several aspects as well as increasing the interest rates of the commercial banks.

The MP said that the investigation into the incident should also go into how the same company had brought bonds through other companies registered with the Central Bank.

The deal was yet not an issue among the general public, but it should be revealed to the country, Handunnetti insisted.

"If the Central Bank governor is cleared by the investigation, he can be reinstated immediately," he added.

Asked why the JVP did not oppose Mahendran’s appointment as the CB governor although they knew he was connected with several companies in the financial field, the MP said if so they had to oppose all appointments of the government as they were all linked with the state institutions of the previous government.