Feb 06, 2020 (LBO) – Former Governor of the Central Bank and current Senior Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday revealed the relationship he has with Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Former Governor Cabraal, while holding office from July 2006 to February 2015, had several of his close relatives appointed to the chief positions in banks under the purview of Central Bank.
Family relationships can be considered a conflict of interest, such as all direct descendants and ancestors, without regard to financial interests, the forensic audit also noted.
“The forensic audit report states that members of my family were involved in various ways.
There are allegations that my sister Shiromi Wickramasinghe was at Perpetual Capital Holdings.
She never received one cent from her position, and she resigned the day she heard of this fraud, which was on 08 March 2015,” Cabraal said.
“However, there remains one relation of mine who is connected to the bond scam. Who is that person? Ranil Wickremesinghe. My uncle in law Mr. Sam Wijesinghe was married to Ranil’s father’s sister; hence, I am revealing that relationship today.”
According to Former Governor Nivard Cabraal, 96 percent of the entities that profited from the bond transactions during his tenure were state connected entities and the balance 4 percent went to other banks.
“If a loss is reported, then so must the profits too because that is usually how audits are done. Then profit to the state should be 28 billion rupees with a net profit of at least 18 billion rupees,” Cabraal claimed.
“If I must take responsibility for the loss then who must bear the responsibility for the profit?”