Today is the day many Sri Lankans, in and out of the country, have been waiting for. Today, (January 3) President Maithripala Sirisena made a special statement on the report and recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Treasury Bond Issue.

The first controversial Bond Auction took place on February 27, 2015.

News 1st began reporting on the matter on March 8, 2015.

After two years of relentless reporting and 10 months of Presidential Commission inquiries, today we have the results.

We have the entire 21 minute statement by the president and a breakdown of the main points made by the Head of State.

Before that, here are 10 key important things President mentioned in his statement;

• EPF and other Govt. institutions have made a minimum loss of 8.5 Billion rupees.
• PM should not have only relied on the assurances given by Arjuna Mahendran and others at CBSL.
• Action recommended under the penal code against Ravi Karunanayake for providing false evidence before the Commission.
• Action recommended against Ravi Karunanayake under the Bribery Act regarding the Penthouse apartment, of which rent was paid for by Arjun Aloysius’s company.
• Civil and criminal procedure recommended against Arjun Aloysius, Kasun Palisena and others responsible for the misuse of EPF funds.
• “I will not hesitate to bring the offenders of the bond scam before law and to recover the loss of Rs. 11.5 billion loss to the public.” – President.
• Expenses of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Treasury Bond Issuance should be reclaimed from Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.
• President has already submitted a copy of the Commission report to the Attorney General to initiate necessary criminal or civil legal action.
• A minor amendment to the Bribery or Corruption Commission Act must be enacted to take legal action on the recommendations of the Commission. For this purpose, already experts at the legal draughtsman are working on the required amendment.
• Under normal circumstances, recovery of money is done through civil legal action. However, it is a time consuming method. As an alternative, the Commission recommend that a Parliamentary Legislation could be passed and the money could be recovered in a speedy manner through a Parliamentary procedure. We agree to that recommendation.

The complete speech

The Breakdown

News 1st special segment