A elephantine issue

Wednesday 10th February, 2021

Never a dull day in Parliament! Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa crossed swords yesterday. Premadasa demanded to know why Bank of Ceylon had granted a pledge loan to the tune of Rs. 3.1 billion to a company owned by a person connected to the government, for stockpiling fags. Claiming that the bank had followed proper procedure in granting the loan, Minister Cabraal asked Premadasa why the latter had been silent when the same bank released as much as Rs. 10 billion within 10 minutes to Perpetual Treasuries (Pvt.) Ltd. for purchasing Treasury bonds in a fraudulent manner, under the yahapalana government.

The bond scams continue to dog the UNP and its offshoot, the SJB. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his Independence Day speech, said he had asked the Attorney General to ensure that all wrongdoers, especially the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday carnage and the bond scammers, would be brought to justice. One can only hope that the President’s instructions will be carried out to the letter and the culprits made to pay for their sins.

The question, however, is whether the bond scams have been investigated properly. Some of the culprits have been identified and legal action has been instituted against a few of them. But much more remains to be done.

Speaking, at a recent UNP organisers’ meeting at Ja-Ela, former UNP MP Range Bandara sought to deny a claim that the UNP had not looked after its local government members; he said that following the formation of the UNP government, in 2015, all UNP local councillors had been invited to Temple Trees and given Rs. 500,000 each as the first tranche of cash handouts. He stopped short of saying how much more they had received afterwards. Where did the money come from? All political parties dish out funds in that manner ahead of elections. But what makes the UNP’s cash distribution, in early 2015, stand out is its timing.

The UNP had been reduced to penury after losing power in 2004 so much so that its headquarters, Sirikotha, could not settle electricity and water bills. But within weeks of the formation of the so-called national unity government after the election of President Maithripala Sirisena, on 08 Jan. 2015, funds suddenly started to pour in and the UNP candidates went on a spending spree in the run-up to the general election that followed. It is against this backdrop that Range Bandara’s aforesaid claim should be viewed.

The first Treasury bond scam was committed on 27 Feb. 2015, about seven weeks after the formation of the yahapalana government, and Perpetual Treasuries with links to the UNP made a killing to the tune of billions of rupees. It has now been established that the UNP-led government facilitated the financial crime. (The second bond scam was committed the following year.) The UNP would not have helped the bond scammers in return for nothing. Part of the loot apparently found its way into the UNP’s war chest. This aspect of the bond scams went uninvestigated.

It is never too late for frauds to be probed. If a proper investigation is conducted, it may be possible to find out how the UNP benefited from the bond scams and how much it received by way of campaign funds. But it is doubtful whether the incumbent government will ever have the issue probed. Crooks on both sides of the political divide do not go all out to destroy one another, especially on issues such as ill-gotten wealth. Those who are currently in power are apparently busy making up for lost time. This is the name of the game in Sri Lankan politics.

When ordinary people deposit their hard-earned money with banks, they are asked numerous questions, and information so obtained is passed on to the taxman. But there are no such legal requirements as regards the political parties that receive and distribute billions of rupees during elections. Elections are the times when loads and loads of black money get laundered.

The need for laws to regulate political donations and campaign expenditure cannot be overemphasised. At present, even drug lords and other anti-social elements can bankroll election campaigns of political parties and cock a snook at the law.