The Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Prof. Charitha Herath today (May 25) recommended that a Parliamentary Select Committee (COPE) be appointed to inquire into the causes of the current economic crisis as well as all those involved, including officials who have neglected their responsibilities in this regard. Did.
The COPE chairman pointed out that the whole country is in a huge crisis today due to the decisions of a few people who led the economy and this should be considered as a crime and investigated immediately.
The COPE Chairman made this recommendation when the Central Bank of Sri Lanka convened before the COPE Committee today to examine the Auditor General's reports and current performance.
Asked about the root causes of the economic crisis, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said that by March / April 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had informed them in writing that the debt in Sri Lanka was then Debt Sustainability. ) That is not. Therefore, the then Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank had been informed in writing that the existing loans would have to be restructured in order to obtain credit facilities, he said.
Accordingly, after the relevant technical discussions under the Finance Act, the Monetary Board of the Central Bank has recommended the relevant technical matters to the Minister of Finance and other senior officials and the relevant decisions will be taken by the Cabinet including the Minister of Finance, the Governor of the Central Bank said.
Parliamentarian Dr. Harsha de Silva stated that the then Minister of Finance had never addressed Parliament and that Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who was speaking in Parliament on his behalf, had not informed Parliament of this fact.
He also pointed out that Sri Lanka's debt was stable at the IMF report as of November 2019, and that a few months after the presidential election, Sri Lanka's debt was declared unsustainable, according to the IMF report.
With the intervention of the then Secretary to the President, Rs. Who made such a decision when a previous IMF report advised that tax cuts of $ 600 billion should not be made? He asked.
Dr. Sarath Weerasekera, Member of Parliament pointed out that this decision was taken with the intention of encouraging new entrepreneurs.
The committee inquired about the prevailing opinion in the society about the loss of large sums of money due to the retention of the exchange rate in the recent past.
The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Rani Jayamaha, who was a member of the Monetary Board at the time, said that the power of the Monetary Board was vested in him. That it was informed in writing.
However, it was revealed that the exchange rate had to be kept at the same level in the opinion of three members of the Monetary Board and that this was at the behest of the then Governor of the Central Bank, Prof. WD Lakshman, the then Secretary to the Treasury and the appointed member, Samantha Kumarasinghe. .
The COPE Committee emphasized the need to give the Central Bank the power to make decisions based on accurate technicalities without the influence of outside parties.
At the same time, solutions to alleviate the current crisis were discussed at length.
The Governor of the Central Bank said that although it is difficult to obtain the required foreign exchange for the next 3-4 months on the way to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, it will try to overcome that challenge somehow.
The COPE Chairman also recommended to the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Mahinda Siriwardena, to discuss with the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration a minimum number of public servants in the face of the current economic crisis, including fuel shortages, and to work out a plan for the next three weeks. Is.
The COPE Chairman also commended the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank for their dedicated work in resolving the current crisis.
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