The Opposition yesterday called for the entire Cabinet-of-Ministers to accept responsibility for the coal scam. Addressing the media at the Flower Road Office of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Foreign Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris emphasised that Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody’s resignation, in the wake of the damning report issued by the National Audit Office (NAO), has now implicated the entire Cabinet-of-Ministers.
Prof. Peiris asserted that Jayakody, who had been indicted in the Colombo High Court over alleged corruption, during the Yahapalana administration, stepped down after the NPP failed to suppress the truth on the coal scam.
The ex-Minister declared that Jayakody’s resignation, the first since the formation of new government, with a super majority in Parliament, was a devastating setback for the current dispensation.
The internationally recognised legal scholar said that a future government would move courts against the entire NPP Cabinet. Referring to the NAO report submitted to Parliament, Prof. Peiris emphasised that there was absolutely no ambiguity regards allegations directed at the Energy Ministry. The NAO report proved that the Indian company, Trident Champhar, that won the major contract, didn’t even have the required registration.
Prof. Peiris said that the coal scam was three times bigger than the Treasury bond scams, perpetrated during the Yahapalana time (SF)