By Shehan Chamika Silva
Testifying at the Presidential Commission, JVP Provincial councilor, Wasantha Samarasinghe (Convener of Voice Against Corruption), based on his information, alleged that the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd had suspiciously prepared themselves few weeks prior to the ‘February 27, 2015 thirty year bond auction’ by selling all bonds it possessed despite the profit.
He said that the alleged thirty year bond issuance was an organized effort by the Officials of Public Debt Department (CBSL), Bank of Ceylon, and former Governor to provide a profit to Perpetual Treasuries deceitfully.
“The Former Governor had set the background by removing the direct placement method when acquiring the required funds to the CBSL, and it caused the PDD to issue bonds at a higher interest rate which resulted an unprecedented and unexpected profit to the Perpetual treasuries within 21 months”, he said.
When the Commission questioned Mr. Samarasinghe whether any specific proofs to identify such misuse, he said that the VAC had requested details pertaining to above allegations from CBSL current Governor from the time period between to January 2015 to May 2016, but no such information received.
“Therefore I insist honorable Commission to obtain those facts from the CBSL pertaining to alleged time period and scrutinize our allegations”, he said.
Explaining the affect on the Employee’s Provident Fund, Mr. Samarasinghe said that regardless of having a clear opportunity to invest on the Primary Market, Rs. 140.1 billion funds of EPF was invested in the secondary market unusually, where interestingly 80% purchase of EPF was from the Perpetual Treasuries, thereby, it had incurred an obvious loss to the EPF fund.
“When we questioned current Governor, it was revealed that, after October 2016, investing EPF funds in secondary market had been completely stopped. And it is now apparent that purchasing such amount in secondary market had caused an evident loss to the EPF fund”, he said.
Mr. Samarasinghe also told the Commission that on several times his organization (VAC) had informed the current Governor on the alleged misuse occurred in EPF fund but no sufficient respond was received from the Governor.
Senior State Counsel Nayomi Wickramasekara led the evidence from the witness based on the letters sent by the witness to the Commission. These letters were relating to the requests made by VAC to the current CBSL Governor and the evaluations prepared by the elite members of the VAC based on the alleged irregularities bond issuance.
The Commission comprised with Supreme Court Judges Kankanithanthri T. Chitrasiri, Prasanna Sujeewa Jayawardena and former Deputy Auditor General Kandasamy Velupillai allowed to cross examine the witness today.
Testifying at the Presidential Commission, JVP Provincial councilor, Wasantha Samarasinghe (Convener of Voice Against Corruption), based on his information, alleged that the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd had suspiciously prepared themselves few weeks prior to the ‘February 27, 2015 thirty year bond auction’ by selling all bonds it possessed despite the profit.
He said that the alleged thirty year bond issuance was an organized effort by the Officials of Public Debt Department (CBSL), Bank of Ceylon, and former Governor to provide a profit to Perpetual Treasuries deceitfully.
“The Former Governor had set the background by removing the direct placement method when acquiring the required funds to the CBSL, and it caused the PDD to issue bonds at a higher interest rate which resulted an unprecedented and unexpected profit to the Perpetual treasuries within 21 months”, he said.
When the Commission questioned Mr. Samarasinghe whether any specific proofs to identify such misuse, he said that the VAC had requested details pertaining to above allegations from CBSL current Governor from the time period between to January 2015 to May 2016, but no such information received.
“Therefore I insist honorable Commission to obtain those facts from the CBSL pertaining to alleged time period and scrutinize our allegations”, he said.
Explaining the affect on the Employee’s Provident Fund, Mr. Samarasinghe said that regardless of having a clear opportunity to invest on the Primary Market, Rs. 140.1 billion funds of EPF was invested in the secondary market unusually, where interestingly 80% purchase of EPF was from the Perpetual Treasuries, thereby, it had incurred an obvious loss to the EPF fund.
“When we questioned current Governor, it was revealed that, after October 2016, investing EPF funds in secondary market had been completely stopped. And it is now apparent that purchasing such amount in secondary market had caused an evident loss to the EPF fund”, he said.
Mr. Samarasinghe also told the Commission that on several times his organization (VAC) had informed the current Governor on the alleged misuse occurred in EPF fund but no sufficient respond was received from the Governor.
Senior State Counsel Nayomi Wickramasekara led the evidence from the witness based on the letters sent by the witness to the Commission. These letters were relating to the requests made by VAC to the current CBSL Governor and the evaluations prepared by the elite members of the VAC based on the alleged irregularities bond issuance.
The Commission comprised with Supreme Court Judges Kankanithanthri T. Chitrasiri, Prasanna Sujeewa Jayawardena and former Deputy Auditor General Kandasamy Velupillai allowed to cross examine the witness today.
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