Brokered questionable agreements :

Cabraal and Sajin on the mat

by Jaliya Wijeyekoon

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ajith P. Perera told the Sunday Observer that former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and former Monitoring MP of the External Affairs Ministry Sajin Vaas Gunewardene had brokered the questionable agreements with foreign PR companies.

The Deputy Minister said deals of this nature with PR companies are not only improper but even illegal as they had not been done following the accepted procedure.

We are yet to probe on whose instructions these colossal sums of money had been squandered on these PR companies. As far as we know, no Cabinet approval has been granted for such deals and this amounts to misappropriation of public funds.

It has now been revealed that the Central Bank under the stewardship of Cabraal had usurped the powers of the Cabinet to make decisions on PR agreements with certain lesser known US firms. The Deputy Minister told the Sunday Observer that certain transactions had been done in an off the look manner violating standard procedures and government regulations.

The Minister said that according to the documents in the Ministry, funds had been collected by the previous government to pay US Congressmen to win support on Human Rights issues.

The Minister said that the Prime Minister had already intervened in this matter and instructed Minister Mangala Samaraweera to initiate a comprehensive investigation on the matter since the allegation involved US Congressmen and Sri Lanka's image.