Mahinda washes his hands of SAITM

‘My government had nothing to do with its creation’

Not all the fireworks that exploded on New Year’s Eve in the Lankan sky to herald the advent of 2018 AD could have matched the political bang the Presidential Commission report on the Central Bank bond scam made this week.

But first, credit where credit is due. And it’s due to President Sirisena in great measure. Unlike some of his predecessors who appointed grandiose commissions to inquire into some scandal or another but kept its findings secret, the Yahapalanaya President chose to take the nation into his confidence and share with the people its dramatic and damaging, dynamite findings. And that, too, not even three days of the report being handed over to him.

True, the President appointed the Commission to inquire into the Bond issuance of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka over the alleged Rs 5 billion Central Bank bond scam only in February last year -- two years after the event which occurred end February in 2015. True too that the Commission took well over eleven months to hand over the final report to the President requesting extension after extension.

But the fact remains that it was well worth the wait. They presented a thorough report -- 1267 pages long with many annexures. And to the Commissioners Supreme Court Justice T. Chitrasiri, the chairman of the commission; Supreme Court Justice Prasanna Sujeewa Jayawardena, and Mr. Velupillai Kandasamy, retired Deputy Auditor General who worked tirelessly for ten long months to sit almost on a daily basis and hear witnesses give evidence before them and sacrificed the seasonal rest and cheer of December to compile their report, the people salute today.

And the same goes to the lawyers in the Attorney General’s Department, especially to Senior Additional Solicitor General Dappula de Livera whose relentless line of questioning perhaps brought forth revelations from witnesses that may not otherwise have surfaced. And the same must go to the spirited defence exhibited by the counsel who appeared on behalf of some of those questioned by the prosecution. To all of them the nation must owe its thanks for all the participants in the arena gave an avid and lively performance to ensure that all in the dock were adequately represented by the best legal brains in town.

Now that the credits have been done with, let’s see the flip side: The people whom the commission’s report damned. According to the president’s statement issued on Wednesday eve, IT DAMNED: Ravi Karunanayake, the then finance minister when the scam took place. The Commissioners referred to the allegation against former Finance Minister Rav i Karunanayake regarding the payment of rent for the penthouse apartment paid for by Aloysius and the Karunanayake family subsequently buying it through their Walt and Rowe Company and stated that Mr. Karunanayake was responsible for that and recommended that the government should take necessary action against Mr. Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption law and further legal action under the penal code for giving false evidence at the Commission. IT DAMNED: Arjun Aloysius, the Perpetual Treasuries boss, the man at the epicentre of the bond storm and recommended legal action against him and other relevant officials including Kasun Perera, responsible for the fraud , IT DAMNED: Arjun Mahendran, father- in- law of Aloysius. The Commission held Mr. Mahendran has made interference into bond auctions through a system of incorrect and unconventional methods and he was responsible for providing internal information to outsiders. One party has used such information to obtain undue monetary profits. But though Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political opponents had been expecting the commission to impute blame on him, the Commission didn’t. Instead it

exonerated the Prime Minister and declared, as the President said reading out his statement:

“The Commission report said that the Honourable Prime Minister’s responsibility in the appointment of Mr. Arjuna Mahendran as the governor to the Central Bank was proper. The Commission is of the opinion that the Prime Minister made his statement in Parliament regarding the appointment of Mr. Mahendran believing in the facts presented by Mr. Mahendran and Mr. P. Samarasiri, especially the promises made by Mr. Mahendran."

The only fault, the Commission found in its report, as the president said in his statement, was that the Prime Minister should not have done that.

But if the Commission, according to the President had stated that the Prime Minister should not have listened to his officials, it is to his credit and serves as a redeeming factor that he had sent the COPE Bond report to the Attorney General on October 2016, according to a statement issued by the PM’s office on Thursday.

The statement further said, the AG had been assigned with the responsibility to institute legal action on the bond transaction by the Prime Minister in December 2016.

And as for Ravi Karunanayake, one cannot but help feel sorry for him. His response, as reported in the Daily Mirror on Friday, was to say, "I am completely at a loss to understand why I am named as a suspect." Again another case of ' I don't know', perhaps?

According to the President’s statement, the Commission, among others, RECOMMENDED that the Attorney General and the Bribery or Corruption Commission must take legal actions to implement the recommendations of the Commission. RECOMMENDED that a Parliamentary Legislation could be passed and the money could be recovered in a speedy manner through a Parliamentary procedure. RECOMMENDED that all the expenditure occurred for the Commission must be recovered from the Perpetual Treasuries Limited. In answer to these recommendations, the president declared in his statement that “I have already submitted a copy of the Commission Report to the Attorney General and he will identify the persons against who the legal action must be taken and initiate necessary criminal or civil legal action to implement the recommendations of the Commission”. He also affirmed, “I would like to specifically state here that I would not hesitate to take steps to recover the loss of Rs, 11,145 million and take legal action against the offenders and punish them.”

And in his statement Sirisena gave his word that “I assure that any hesitation would not occur in filing cases against the offenders. Furthermore, I wish to state that this is the final report of the Commission.”

Though members of the previous regime often accuse both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of carrying out a vendetta against them whenever they are questioned or arrested over allegations of frauds and bleat to the public the familiar ‘ this is nothing but political revenge’, the establishment of the Bond Commission comprising two Supreme Court Judges and a retired Deputy Auditor General to inquire into a bond scam that took place under this own government’s watch, with the Prime Minister himself questioned by the Commissioners and by the Attorney General as to his role, if any, in it; and its subsequent findings made public within seventy two hours of the report being handed over to the President, serves to add credibility to Sirisena’s oft made declaration, and reiterated only

Well so much for SAITM issue. It seemed all but settled. It appeared even the doctors had realised the folly of flogging a dead horse. Or so it was thought till this week. Thus it was surprising why the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa thought it fit to resurrect it from purgatory’s knackers’ yard. Why he suddenly chose to ride the dead night mare of the nation and revive it remains a mystery.

In a surprise statement issued on Boxing Day last Tuesday, he deemed right to warn the Government not to renege on the undertaking given to end the crisis in the field of medical education, caused by the SAITM medical college. In his statement he said, “Medical education in this country has been at a complete standstill since 2016. In a situation where the students who qualified to enter the medical faculties in 2016 have not yet commenced their courses, the students who passed the A/L examination in 2017 will also be awaiting entry into the medical faculties. Since clinical practice is mandatory in addition to lectures, medical faculties have difficulties in taking in a new batch without the previous one going on to the next stage.”

No question about what he said in his statement. The issue is in the timing. And who provided the patronage for the chaos?

Especially when you consider how he suavely washed his hands off the whole SAITM saga with a deft reference to his own involvement and responsibility in its production. He merely said: “Even though members of the government have been saying from time to time that the SAITM was started by my government, this is a private enterprise started by its owners, not by any government.

“When the SAITM started its medical course, there was no established procedure whereby a private institution could be accredited to offer medical degree courses. There was no legal provision for the government to prohibit private institutions from commencing medical degree courses either. Since 2009, the SAITM medical degree course has existed in this grey area of the law and the regulatory framework. This can be described as a complication that has arisen due to a lacuna in the law”.

Very convincing. Very convenient. A lacuna in the law no less. More like a cavity in the brain causing amnesia. For wasn’t it Mahinda who blessed the Chairman of SAITM Dr. Neville Fernando for his entrepreneurship and then proceeded to request of him to grant ten scholarships to 10 students of his choice at SAITM and who awarded the scholarships personally at a much publicized public ceremony? What’s the logic in a medical college that does not award degrees at the end of the study course? What’s the logic in awarding scholarships to students to lead to a dead end after three or four years of diligent years of study and have nothing to show their labours? last week, that he will crack down on corruption wherever he finds it, be it in his own ranks or elsewhere.

Only one little thing is needed to confirm his will: To bring the crooks to book as soon as possible.