Monk's petition on eve of bond debate in House

A Buddhist monk appointed by the Finance Ministry to the Lanka Hospitals’ ( Apollo) Board of Directors has filed a fundamental rights ( FR) petition challenging the report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the bond issue -- just days before Parliament debates the matter.

The petitioner, Ven Thiniyawala Palitha Thera, is claiming that the COPE report is “littered with inconsistencies and/or contradictions and/or misrepresentations” which, he says, “makes certain findings and/or statements in the COPE report unsafe, and/or prejudiced and/or biased...” He claims it is therefore a violation and infringement of his fundamental rights.

The Parliament debate on the Central Bank bond issue is scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Ajith P Perera, a UNP member of COPE, is on record saying that the party does not intend to postpone or avoid the debate. With Ven Palitha Thera’s FR petition before the Supreme Court, however, there could be an attempt to scuttle it on the grounds that the matter is sub judice, political analysts say.

The respondents in Ven Palitha Thera’s petition are all 26 members of COPE; the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka; CBSL Gover nor Indrajit Coomaraswamy; the CBSL’s Treasury Bond Tender Committee chairman P Samarasiri; the CBSL’s Public Debt Department the Superintendent and Registrar; the Auditor General; and the Attorney General.

Acting through the law firm Paul Ratnayeke Associates, Ven Palitha Thera's petition harks back to the pre-2015 private placement system and challenges the losses incurred. He contends that there is an ex facie contradiction, inconsistency, misrepresentative and distorted position maintained in the COPE report.

The petition draws attention to paragraph 4.2 of the COPE report on the use of the Public Debt Department’s Operations Manual in respect of implementing policy decisions for the issue of bonds by CBSL. It states that the relevant section and the entirety of the COPE report do not indicate with any acceptable degree of certainty whether the CBSL or the CBSL’s Monetary Board has properly, lawfully and in terms of proper Central Bank procedure authorised and sanctioned the use of direct or private placement in the issue of Treasury Bonds to primary dealers (non-captive sources) during the period 2008-2015.

The monk’s petition further states that paragraph 4.2 of the COPE report has not satisfactorily met the aspirations of the general public, including the petitioner, as, read in its entirety, it does not even remotely and unambiguously inform the reader whether the Central Bank had properly and lawfully authorised the issue of Treasury Bonds to primary dealers viz the direct or private placement method during 2008-2015.

Attention is also drawn to paragraph 6.1 (without the footnotes) titled “Estimated loss if the bond issue had been limited to Rs 1 billion”. The petition observes that, on a plain reading of this section, it has been suggested and implied that as the bond issue of February 27, 2015, had not been limited to Rs 1 billion, the Government and the country had suffered an estimated loss of Rs 889,358,050.

But when reading the paragraph with footnotes, there are contradictions, the petition states. It claims the reader is, inter alia, not made aware as to whether the supposed estimated loss is a reliable figure; and whether it has been calculated on the basis or within the context that the direct or private placement method is the correct process. It further states that neither paragraph 6.1 nor the COPE report indicates with any acceptable degree of certainty whether the stated estimated loss has been calculated viz the use of a reliable and proper method.

Referring to paragraph 6.2--titled “Loss incurred as a result of exceeding Rs. 2.608 billion recommended by the Public Debt Management Committee of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka”-- the petition again questions the reliability of the figures and whether they have been calculated on the basis and within the context that the direct or private placement method is the correct process.

Citing “glaring contradictions and/ or inconsistencies and/or misrepresentations contained in the COPE report”, the petition says the COPE members have not fulfilled their duties and obligations to the petitioner and other people of Sri Lanka.

The monk- petitioner, who is the chief incumbent of the Nalandaraamaya temple in Kotte, has sought leave to proceed and a declaration that his fundamental rights have been infringed. He also requests the Court to make an order or declaration that any express or implied finding and statement and suggestion in the COPE report that the direct or private placement method in the issue of Treasury Bonds by the CBSL has been properly and lawfully and correctly used between January 2009 and the date of the COPE report is wrongful.

He also asks for an order or declaration that, as at the time of the Treasury Bond auctions of February 27, 2015, and of March 29, 2016, the proper and lawful process and method as regards to the issue of Treasury Bonds was the auction process or method and not the direct or private placement process or method.

(Full text of the plaint is available on www.sundaytimes.lk)