President Maithripala Sirisena said that he had told Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinge that the best option for the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in the face the recent controversy over the bond issue was for him to resign.

During the special address last evening (14 July), commenting on this issue the President said, “There is a general opinion among the common masses of this country that Ranil Wickremesinghe is not corrupt. That he does not rob. When the issue over the Central Bank Governor arose, during the often held discussions, even at the last instance I told him that he has a good reputation, that in the face of this incident, under the prevailing circumstances he had to be true to society, to the country. Hence, I told him that the best option is for the Central Bank governor to resign.”

The three-member committee appointed to investigate into this controversial bond issue reported that though Central Bank Governor ArjunaMahendran was not directly responsible for this bond issue, that the way a company linked to the Central Bank Governor’s son-in-law had made bids for this bond issue was unusual and this needed further investigations.

The three-member committee comprising attorneys-at-law Gamini Pitipana, Mahesh Kalugampitiya and Chandimal Mendis had stated that there were grave discrepancies in the actions of the Bank of Ceylon over the unusually large bids submitted in this bond issue by the company linked to the Central Bank Governor’s son-in-law.

This committee had also recommended that hence, the Bank of Ceylon had to undertake a judicial audit for risking a huge amount of money on the 30 year bond issue and call for explanations from its capital traders.

The Central Bank announcement on this bond issue is as follows:

Bond 121