The dramatic bond issue: How COPE went beyond bioscope

• After some 18 months of strenuous debate and the UNP’s defence of former CBSL governor
• But footnotes added by UNP MPs as riders

 Sunday, October 30, 2016

JVP parliamentarian Sunil Handunetti, taking the centre stage as COPE chairman in probing the Central Bank bond scam is seen here at the Parliament complex corridor carrying the final draft of the widely awaited report. Pic by Indika Handuwela

By Our Political Editor

At no time before has the United National Party (UNP) used its might so strongly in Parliament to try and block what it perceived was a report not to its liking.

The first occasion was in June last year. The previous Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) had completed its probe on the controversial Central Bank bond issue of February 2015. Its then Chairman, Communist Party’s D.E.W. Gunasekera was to table the report but the seventh Parliament was dissolved on June 26, 2015 by President Maithripala Sirisena. The Committee, like all other appointed parliamentary committees, became defunct and the report was rendered invalid. That report had already made some adverse findings on the Central Bank for the handling of the bond issue of 2015.

Yet, the 19-page 2015 COPE document which was not official, had received wide play in the media. The Sunday Times was even reported to the Speaker for breach of Parliamentary Privileges by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on charges that it published the contents of that report. The report made indictments on the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran and his son-in-law Arjun Joseph Aloysius. It said that Governor Mahendran and Perpetual Treasuries Limited, a company held by his son-in-law Aloysius (who resigned two months before the transaction) but was still co-owner of the holding company “had a related party transaction.” However, President Sirisena did not grant an extension of service to Mahendran as Governor when his term expired in June last year amid high drama. The President had wanted the Deputy Governor appointed but the Prime Minister was insistent that Mahendran continue; then, there was a name sent from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) when the President was adamant he would not extend Mahendran; that name was sent back asking for more names and eventually the current holder of the post, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, was chosen as the compromise choice. Mahendran was thereafter inducted to the PMO and was a member of official delegations that travelled abroad with the Prime Minister and was introduced to heads of state in the glare of television cameras.

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