Speaker decides to withhold bond report annexures given to him

Colombo (News1st) - A number of unreleased annexures of the Bond Commission Report which were with the Presidential Secretariat were sent to Parliament on Tuesday (June 5th). During the parliamentary session on Tuesday, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced that he had received the annexures from C350 to C360, he went onto note that the during the Parliamentary committee meeting held prior to the parliamentary session it was decided that these annexures would be held back until the speaker received all annexures from C1 to C349. When Leader of the JVP inquired into whether the Speaker had requested for the other annexures, the Speaker states that the Presidential Secretary is currently overseas and that they would take steps to obtain the rest of the annexures.   UPFA MP Wimal Weerawansa raised allegations of a conspiracy to cover up these details and demanded that the Speaker disclose the documents that he had received. UNP MP Nalin Bandara joining the debate also stated that they were eager to see those documents as there were only 42 members of the UNP in parliament when the bond scam took place, whereas allegations have been raised that 118 individuals including politicians received money from Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL), Arjun Aloysius or companies connected to the Perpetual Group. MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage then stated that CID had recorded statements from the security officers of 24MPs and Ministers including officers attached to the security detail of State minister Ajith P. Perera.  He noted that he had never met Aloysius or accepted money from him and will be presenting an affidavit certifying this. He urges all other members of the new COPE committee to do the same. State Minister Ajith P. Perera rejected the claims made by MP Aluthgamage and went onto state that MP Aluthgaage and MP Jayantha Samaraweera are not fit to serve in COPE as they had allegations of fraud and corruption against them.   MP Vasudewa Nanayakkara meanwhile made a clear statement that while the activities of Parliament are in a disarray due to the allegations of accepting money, while the rogue former central bank Governor, Arjuna Mahendran is living in Singapore. Meanwhile, civil organisation once again reiterated their calls for the release of all documents of the Bond Commission report which have been withheld. Executive Director of CaFFE Keerthi Tennakoon speaking on the documents that were submitted to Parliament today stated that these documents are quite important because it contains two sections of telephone numbers and details regarding the telephone conversations COPE members had with officials of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. He noted that if the Parliament of Sri Lanka has an interest in finding out who which Parliamentarians are linked with this the Speaker and Secretary General of Parliament could easily do so through legal means. Tennakoon went onto state although Presidential Secretary Austin Fernando and those who formulated the report are privy to the information contained within it, they have evidence to believe that around 164 persons had accepted money from PTL, Arjun Aloysius or companies connected to the Perpetual Group.