Bond issue: COPE Chairman wants phone details presented to Parliament

COPE Chairman and JVP MP, Sunil Hadunnetti yesterday requested Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to take steps to record in the hansard the details of the telephone conversations said to have taken place between some COPE members and PTL owner Arjun Aloysius, during COPE proceedings on the bond issue so that people would know what had been discussed.

He said it was unethical for COPE members to talk to a person under investigation over various allegations.

“It is unethical for them to talk a person directly involved in the bond issue. Talking to the ministry or Central Bank officials would not have mattered. The details of these telephone conversations should be divulged in Parliament,” Mr. Handunnetti said.

He said it was an achievement to present the COPE report on the bond issue in Parliament despite such conspiracies, adding that anyone who reads the report would realise the interference they had while trying to present it in Parliament.

“I am so happy about my staff. Officials of the Attorney General’s Department and Parliament rendered yeoman service in conducting investigations,” he said.