Tug of war between Governor and Finance Minister

 Dec 09, 2016

The talk in the Financial sector is that Governor Kumaraswamy is finding it extremely uncomfortable with the Finance Minister who is a go getter getting the better of him.

The Governor is trying to take a total independent line from the government and not cooperating with the Finance Ministry to address some of the very serious structural issues.

He is ably supported by Crysantha Perera an ex Chairman of Forbes and Walker Tea. He was appointed to the Monetary Board by Charitha Rathwatte .

Another parachutist in the Yahapalana government. In fact it is well known that UNP supporters had visited Rathwatte's house to canvass his vote. Crysantha Perera only has his O/L.

The Monetary Board usually has people who are qualified. It was during his tenure that the notorious Bond Scam happened.

Crysantha Perera should have resigned like the ex Governor and gone home. But shamelessly he stayed on. His conflict of interest is well known. He is Chairman of Tea Service Ltd. A company owned by Capital Alliance buying and selling government  bonds. Crysantha was Chairman of Capital Alliance until very recently. Capital Alliance is owned by Jetwing.

The Coorays owners of Jetwing Group, Hiran and Shiromal were close associates of Basil Rajapaksa. It was touted around in 2012 that Basil Rajapaksa was a silent investor in Jetwing . Hiran Cooray supported Mahinda Rajapakse by speaking at the business forum to support Mahinda Rajapaksa and openly canvassing for him.

All these companies should be fully investigated to make sure Rajapaksa money was not laundered during their reign through these companies.