"Politicians behind bond scam should be brought to court" - Handunetti

COLOMBO (News 1st): JVP Parliamentarian and Chairman of COPE Sunil Handunetti spoke about the move to file indictments at the Special High Court Trail at bar against a group including former governor of the CBSL Arjuna Mahendran. He made these remarks at a media briefing held in Battaramulla today (June 14). The MP said that with political affiliations in these cases that they believe certain politicians should also be named as defendants along with the officials. He continued to say that although all details up to date were revealed by the officials of the Audit Department on the matter, the forensic audit has still not commenced as they hope to conduct it through a foreign company which will cost a good sum of Rs. 900 million out of which Rs. 1.5 million is required only for the purpose of auditing phone calls. Handunetti also said that most of these phone calls were conducted in Sinhalese and that if the audit is to be carried out by a foreign company that they will have to face the issues of translating the content and also maintaining the confidentiality of the details revealed to them. He also said that this matter will only postpone court proceedings on the matter. The MP further reiterated that the political powers that assisted these people to gain political mileage and other financial benefits while completely betraying the peoples' mandate should be brought before a court of law. He added that the investigations into these officials and other concerned parties involved should be probed in depth. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has now begun to conduct a forensic audit into the Central Bank bond scam after a long period of time. After a lengthy process, an audit firm named KPMG India was selected to conduct the forensic audit. However, KPMG affiliate, BSR and Associates has come under the scrutiny of Indian authorities. The Ceylon Today reported that regulators and investors in India are investigating BSR & Associates for the role as auditors of the failed IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) in India.