News
State banks, Stock Exchange, corporations under scrutiny: PM
A number of state financial institutions will be probed for corrupt activities and mismanagement, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe revealed yesterday.’
“These will include the Central Bank, the Bank of Ceylon, the People’s Bank, the Stock Exchange and the Insurance Corporation,” he told the Sunday Times.
Premier Wickremesinghe was commenting after the National Unity Government’s first weekly meeting of ministers discussed proposals, including one from him, to appoint Special Commissions to probe large scale corruption. The other is a proposal from Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Power and Energy. Ministers have agreed on an eleven member Council Against Corruption to evolve ways and means of tackling it.
Since assuming office, Premier Wickremesinghe is being flooded with information about key players in the former UPFA Government engaging in corrupt activity. Among them were top officials of the Presidential Secretariat, Ministers and officials.
Among the alleged irregularities at the Central Bank is how public relations companies in the United States were hired by the then Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal without the approval of Cabinet. The Bank has also been funding demonstrations outside the UN office in Geneva and had met the expenditure when a Sri Lankan delegation travelled in a chartered aircraft to Trinidad and Tobago where they made an unsuccessful bid to host the Commonwealth Games in Hambantota.
The two major state-run banks – the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank – have been accused of giving political nominees huge loans without collateral and the funnelling funds for political activities. In this regard, allegations against the People’s Bank, then headed by Gamini Senarath, Chief of Staff of the President, have come under close scrutiny.
A Government source said that at the Stock Exchange, one of the main areas of the investigation will be insider trading. It is alleged that a select mafia was responsible for this. The Insurance Corporation, the same source said, has come under scrutiny for a number of allegations including financial irregularities.