Government MPs threaten to remove Harsha from COPF chair, Ajith P. Perera says

Majority of government MPs threatened to remove COPF chairman Harsha de Silva from his post if video footage of investigations into internal hackers released to the media, former Parliamentarian Ajith P. Perera said. Replying to journalists on the "Hiru Salakuna" political programme yesterday on the 15th, he noted that severe pressure from government MPs halted the release of video footage from the last two parliamentary COPF meetings where the Treasury Secretary and Central Bank Governor discussed financial frauds and the dollar crisis.

The former MP mentioned that a majority group of government MPs exerted heavy pressure to block these tapes despite COPF discussions usually allowing public transparency. He stated that steps were similarly taken to abolish the chairmanship of Harsha de Silva in 2023 when recommendations exposed a coal scam. Harsha de Silva directly challenged them to remove him, while opposition MPs insisted on the immediate release of the tapes as citizens have a right to know who is responsible for national financial management problems, he said.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank Governor recently stated in parliament that while the current foreign exchange amount of 6.8 billion US dollars is somewhat sufficient, the government must improve these funds to achieve future targets, he mentioned. The Sri Lanka Police and Customs uncovered a large-scale racket where companies illegally transferred dollars out of the country under the guise of importing goods, he stated.

A company named 'Next Gen' alone transferred 12,890 million rupees to 26 foreign countries on 953 occasions, sending 42.7 million dollars out of the country, he said. Furthermore, money from a 13.2 billion rupee financial fraud at the National Development Bank went to foreign countries through this method, sending out another 43 million dollars. Although the Central Bank Governor said fraudsters deceived officials, the supervisory process of the Central Bank remains weak due to the inability to prevent these long-running multi-billion rupee frauds, the former MP alleged.