Speaker says nothing missing from Bond Commission report

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced yesterday that he had been informed by the Secretary to the President that Parliament had been given copies of the complete report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which had investigated the bond scams.

Making an announcement, the Speaker said that Campaign for Free and Fair Elections had inquired from him whether Parliament received the complete report of the bond commission.

“On my instructions, the Secretary General of Parliament queried from the Secretary to the President whether there had been any other volumes of the bond commission report or whether any pages had gone missing. We have been informed that there are no other volumes and nothing missing from the report and the report they had received from the commission was sent to Parliament in its entirety. The response had been conveyed to the Executive Director of CaFFE.

He said there had been requests, one from the JO Parliamentary group leader MP Dinesh Gunawardena and the other from Chief Opposition Whip JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake for a special sitting of Parliament, which had been adjourned till 1pm on Jan 23. They made the requests following the submission of the bond commission report by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to the President.

“Accordingly, the party leaders met at 2pm on Jan 9 and decided that the House should meet for the special sitting the following day. The Prime Minister too made a written request under provisions of Standing Orders No 14 of Parliament that the House be summoned for a special sitting.

“At the party leaders’ meeting it was decided that the Prime Minister would be given time to make a special statement explaining the reasons for his call for summoning Parliament under the Standing Orders and each party leader would be given opportunity to speak.

It was stated at the meeting that the Speaker’s Office had requested the Office of the President to provide Parliament with a copy of the bond commission report. In addition to that Leader of the House too had made a written request to the Secretary to the President, pointing out that the bond commission report was necessary for the Jan 10 debate in Parliament.

“On Jan 10, the Secretary to the President informed the Speaker’s office that the Presidential Secretariat had sent copies of the bond commission report on the instructions of the Attorney General, to the Governor of the Central Bank and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. It was also conveyed that the reports would be made available to Parliament on Jan 17.

“In addition to requests were made to the Presidential Secretariat that the copies of the reports of the Presidential Commission which inquired into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC) be made available to Parliament.

“President’s office sent 26 copies of the bond commission report and copies of 34 PRECIFAC reports had been handed over by a legal officer of the Presidential Secretariat to the Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dassanayake. As I wanted to give copies of reports to each MP I summoned the Government Printer and discussed with her as to how we can make the report available to each MP without further delay.  The reports are now available to each and every MP. Further to that the reports have been scanned and copied into compact discs and been provided to the MPs.

“Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections inquired from him whether Parliament had received the complete report of the bond commission. “On my instructions, the Secretary General of Parliament queried from the Secretary to the President whether there had been any other volumes of the bond commission report or any pages that had gone missing. We have been informed that there are no other volumes or anything missing from the report and the report they had received from the commission was sent to Parliament in its entirety. The response had been conveyed to the Executive Director of CaFFE.

“It is not suitable to permit the spread of falsehoods on the content of the report in society,” the Speaker said.