MR’S BLUNDER LED TO GAZETTE NOTICE MIX-UP: RAJITHA

CB bond issue probe

It was a blunder by former president and then finance minister Mahinda Rajapaksa that led to the ongoing controversy in connection with the date and the gazette notice on the sale of Central Bank bonds, Cabinet spokesman and minister Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday.

Till 2012 the then finance ministers signed the gazette notices, but this practice was changed from 2013

He told the weekly Cabinet news briefing that until 2012, the the finance ministers had signed all the gazette notices on the issuance of Treasury Bonds but from 2013 onward this system had not been carried out.

“What the then government has done from 2013 is to issue a single gazette notice on the sale of bonds and the total amount of funds to be raised through them. It is a violation of the Act that governs the sale of bonds. The Central Bank officials have also done a mistake by failing to change the name of the finance minister who signed the relevant gazette notices after January 8, 2015 in the wake of the change of government and the finance minister. That is how former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s name entered the gazette notice issued after the regime change,” the minister said.

“In one instance a former governor had refused to sign on the relevant document because the gazette notice had the approval of former finance minister Rajapaksa. In November 2016, officials had sent the gazette notice bearing the name of former finance Minister to the government printer.”

He said the truth about the controversy would be revealed after the Commission of Inquiry concludes its investigation into the CB bond scam.