Special commission ...

Friday's event at one point turned into a platform seeking support for the UNP-led coalition when Mr. Perera, in a speech, urged depositors to vote for the UNP at the August 17 poll due to the "intervention of Prime Minister (PM) Ranil Wickremesinghe to mete out justice to the depositors". The comment was made in the presence of the President while the PM had left the hall by that time.

GK directors passed the resolution at around 4.30 pm on Thursday and the preparation of cheques and signing was completed late night on the same day, Mr Gunawardena said. The Finance Ministry had made arrangements earlier to make the first tranche of payments of 41 per cent of the account balance of GK depositors utilizing Treasury funds amounting to Rs.544.3 million, ministry sources said.

A sum of Rs. 544.3 million had been credited by the Treasury to the company account. Payments of depositors with the account balance of up to Rs. 2 million will be paid within the next two weeks.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the gathering of over 300 GK depositors at the BMICH Main Hall that the Central Bank had earlier ignored the finding of its Inspection Unit in 2005-2006 on the status of GK and it had resulted in the collapse of the company.

He said that GK company has been forced to crash by the previous regime.New laws will be introduced to the non-banking finance sector to protect depositors and prevent the re-occurrence of similar debacles again.

After that the Prime Minister left the premises without waiting to hear the president’s address saying he was unable to stay till the end of the ceremony as he had to attend an important function outstation.

President Maithripala Sirisena noted that a special presidential commission will be appointed to investigate the GK debacle and those who were responsible for it. A former Supreme Court Judge will head the one man commission which will make recommendations to take legal action against persons who embezzled money of the company before and after the collapse of the GK company.

Minister Karunanayake told the gathering of over 300 GK depositors that the Attorney General’s Department had delayed the presentation of details of the cabinet proposal and the repayment schedule prepared by the ministry and the Central Bank before the Supreme Court reasons best known to them.