Legal representative for Perpetual Treasuries Limited, President’s Counsel Nihal Fernando yesterday expressed his dissatisfaction in the manner in which the Attorney General is conducting the proceedings, at the hearings of the Presidential Commission to Investigate and Inquire into the Issuance of Treasury Bonds.
PC Fernando alleged that the representatives of the Attorney General seem not impartial regarding the matter at hand. Responding to the allegation, the Presidential Commission said the matter in concern is not a crime and thus the proceeding does not take the nature of a prosecution.
Expressing the view of the panel of Senior State Counsels appointed by the Attorney General to assist the Commission regarding the matter, Senior Additional Solicitor General Dappula de Livera assured to the Commission, despite the magnitude of the issue is not leveled up to a crime, the panel’s commitment will not be nothing less than the effort put at a murder trial. Mean time, PC Nihal Fernando complained that his client was prosecuted and convicted by the media regarding the CBSL Treasury bond issue. The hassle rose in the back drop when the Commission observed the total accumulation percentage of the market share held by the Perpetual Treasuries Limited at the Treasury bond auctions held on the 29 March 2016 is a 32%. The total number of bids received from the Perpetual Treasuries Limited at the said auctions adds up to 27,560 and the total number of bids accepted at the same, amounts to 26, 410, it was observed.
Meanwhile, the panel of Senior State Counsels to assist the Presidential Commission headed by Senior Additional Solicitor General Dappula de Livera, observed that in two of the four treasury bond auctions held on the said date, the highest percentage of bid acceptance is recorded with regards to the Perpetual Treasuries Limited. These observations came into being as the present Superintendent of the Debt Department T.H.B. Saratchandra was testifying at the Presidential Commission.
Senior State Counsel Shaheeda Barrie led the evidence for the day. The Commission also observed that at the said auctions where the highest percentages of bids were accepted, the yield rates were also the highest.