News
PSC to identify those responsible for current economic crisis
View(s):- PM proposes all-party committee instead of presidential commission
- Probe will also focus on failure to approach IMF and delays to seek international support
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is to propose a Parliamentary Select Committee to ascertain individuals responsible for the current economic crisis that has led to acute shortages of essential food, medicines, fuel, gas and foreign exchange and to bankruptcy.
The proposal for an All-Party Select Committee was opted for rather than a Presidential Commission of Inquiry, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times yesterday.
The Select Committee is expected to go into the economic conditions that have led to the “suffering of the people” according to the first draft of the proposal.
It will mainly revolve around the Government’s failure to act when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the country’s debt servicing was “unsustainable”. In response, the Government’s financial high ups had said it was sustainable, maintaining to the public that the country’s finances were positive when it was not. The probe will also focus on the reasons for the inordinate delay to go to the IMF and seek international support.
The artificial pegging of the rupee to the US dollar that gave the unofficial market outside the banking system an impetus leading to a shortfall of dollars for genuine importers is also among the items in the draft proposals for the Select Committee.
Last Wednesday, Sri Lanka for the first time defaulted on paying back on two overseas loans because it had no foreign exchange.
Premier Wickremesinghe said he would consult party leaders in Parliament on the matter next week and work out the modalities for the Select Committee. He added that there were several “unpaid bills” by the Government to foreign companies and cited this as one of the key reasons why ships carrying fuel and other essentials are not unloading their goods.
It is learned that the Government owes hundreds of foreign lenders monies that were borrowed as sovereign loans (with Government guarantees). The Prime Minister told Parliament this week that Treasury books had been “cooked”, indicating it would be a major task to unravel from whom and how the Government had borrowed money, and who had been responsible for this.
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