In the wake of allegations that several MPs were given money by Perpetual Treasuries Pvt Ltd, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon yesterday said that the Speaker should ask for affidavits from these MPs stating that they have no dealings with PTL.
“It’s up to the Speaker to protect the honour of Parliament, so this is something he can do,” he said addressing a media briefing yesterday.
Family members and business associates of several previous members of the Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) are alleged to have received money from W.M.Mendis: Liquor Manufacturers, owned by Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL). We know that the previous batch of COPE members had alleged dealings with PTL which had an adverse effect on the credibility of COPE. Now new members have been appointed to COPE, he explained.
The Speaker yesterday received Sections C350 to C360 of the Bond Commission Report from the Presidential Secretariat but not the whole report, Tennekoon however pointed out that the Speaker and MPs have the ability to obtain the full Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) report on Bond Scam through legal means.
“In January I have asked the Secretary to the President to release the full report. Since he wanted specific documents I informed him of 13 annexes of the Bond Commission report. Yesterday Presidential Secretariat released some documents. But in those document only annex C 350, which contains the phone calls some MPs had with Arjuna Aloysius and the conversations Ravi Karunanayake and his family members had with the PTL owner, has some value. However the MPs can demand for other documents from the Presidential Secretariat based on information from C 350,” he said.
Tennakoon further added that MPs who had continuously criticised former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and SLFP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara have shown little interest in obtaining a CID report on transactions made to a large number of MPs.
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