- On April 24, a divisional bench of the Supreme Court presided over the Chief
Justice Shiranee Bandaranayake orders that the former Army Commander Sarath
Fonseka be transferred to the Nawaloka Hospital from the General Hospital.
- A few days later (April 27) all the exposure on the NSB – TFC transaction
starts surfacing, only after the order is made by the Supreme Court for the
transfer of General Fonseka from the General Hospital back to Nawaloka.
- By this time the pardoning of the former Army commander is history with the
President insisting that either Sarath Fonseka or any one of his family members
should seek clemency from him.
- Suddenly the President activates the mechanism to pardon the former Army
Commander despite the fact that there was no such application made to the
President.
- The Government is well aware of the fact that the former Army Commander’s
bail application was to be determined by the Supreme Court on May 31.
- Attorneys’ for Sarath Fonseka file a motion in the ‘deserters case’ moving
for bail on May 17. Motion was taken up in open court before High Court Judge
Sunil Rajapasha on May 18 and the Senior state counsel in a shocking turn of
events says the AG had “no objection” to enlarge Sarath Fonseka on bail.
- Motion is filed in the White Flag case on May 21 and the Supreme Court
allows the withdrawal of the appeal and thereafter Sarath Fonseka is released
from the prison on a Presidential remission of the sentence on the May 21. The
Chief Justice also orders the Registrar of the Supreme Court to inform the
Prison’s superintendent that the appeal has been withdrawn.
- Board of directors of the NSB, appointed by the government go against the
Chairman by publishing an advertisement in the daily newspapers and dissociate
themselves from the attempted purchase of shares.
- Government-sponsored unions of the NSB come out and fight against their
Chairman with whom they have had a cordial relationship until then.
- Astrologer-turned-banker holds interviews against the Chairman of the NSB.
- Working Director-astrologer tenders his resignation from the NSB board.
- On May 24, the President visits the ex-Working Director at his residence in
Galle and praises him for being the first to resign from the board of NSB.
This Government has never intervened in any corrupt deal that took place in
the country which was colossal in nature. A few such instances are enumerated
below:
A) 40 billion-rupee fraud for the award of tenders in the
north under Uthuru Wasanthaya – through China Harbour Corporation and CATIC.
B) The corrupt deal amounting to US$25 million in the
purchase of gantry cranes by the Ports Authority.
C) Billions of investments made by the Monetary Board of Sri
Lanka through the EPF amounting to billions which has now come down drastically
in the value of the portfolio, some of which are pointed out below.
D) Waste of 10 billion rupees in SriLankan Airlines and five
billion rupees in Mihin Lanka under the patronage of Sajin Vaas Gunawardena. It
is noteworthy that when Mihin Air was about to be closed Sajin Vaas has
established his singly-owned largest private airline company by the name and
style of Cosmos International acquiring several helicopters and a number of
fixed wing aircrafts for domestic travel in Sri Lanka.
E) The Government took no steps when the Governor of the
Central Bank initiated the purchase of large lands in New York and Dubai which
are definitely not within the purview of the Central Bank costing billions of
rupees.
F) How and why didn’t the Government comply with the Supreme
Court order and issue bonds to the value of six billion rupees and instead pay
spot cash in violation of the Supreme Court order to Harry Jayawardena when the
Court reversed the purchase of the Insurance Corporation?
G) While 5 % of EPF monies were earlier invested in the
stock market, it has been increased to 8 % in the last few months. Statistics
have revealed that in 2008, the EPF had invested Rs. 30 billion in the stock
market and earned returns amounting to only Rs. 0.17 billion. The prices of
certain stocks are inflated and once the EPF purchases them the prices have
fallen.
I) The EPF had brought shares for Rs. 4 billion and lost Rs.
1 billion. In one instance the EPF had purchased 10 % of Laugfs shares that were
Rs. 38 each for Rs. 48 on the 10th. The monies invested were Rs.1.8 billion and
by the end of trading, the stocks have fallen to Rs. 40 (per share).
J) The EPF had also purchased shares in Grain Elevators and
Browns. In the case of Grain Elevators, five million shares that were purchased
at Rs. 238 each have now fallen to Rs. 36 per share. The loss is over one
billion rupees.
K) These are workers’ monies and the government has invested
Rs. 50 billion in the stock market in the past few months. The EPF monies are
invested by the Monetary Board chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank. In
the last one year the value of the portfolio has plummeted down to at least 25
billion rupees.
L) In another transaction, shares of Laugfs Gas Company was
trading at Rs 38 for two months and the prices went up to Rs 48 on October 10 at
around 11 am. The EPF then bought Rs 1.8 billion worth of shares and on the same
day, at around 2.30 pm the price of Laugfs shares dropped to Rs 40. So the loss
for a single day was Rs 300 million.
Who is responsible for these losses? Will the Governor and the rest of the
members of the Monetary Board put a paper advertisement and tender their
resignation?
If there is one person of the Monetary Board who would be ‘benevolent’ enough
and take a leaf from the book of the astrologer Abeygunawardena, he can be
assured with a rare privilege that the President of the country would visit him
at his residence and praise him for the courageous decision taken.
When such
is the record of the government what prompted the government to assertively
intervene in the ‘attempt to purchase’ of shares by NSB of TFC?
Is this a clear message by the government to the judiciary to say the least –
“we appointed you and you better look after our interests at all instances and
if you step out of line this is the fate that you or your members of the family
would be faced with”?
(The writer is one-time Secretary of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and
later the President of the Colombo Law Society. He drafted three impeachment
motions against the former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva out of which in one
instance Chandrika Kumaratunga the then President prorogued the Parliament and
in the second instance she dissolved the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime in 2004 |
