• Govt. has no mandate to enact reforms: Kiriella
• Deletion of key parts of agreement is not transparency: Eran

Chief Opposition Whip and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Parliamentarian (MP) Lakshman Kiriella said on Friday (24) that they would ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reveal on what grounds they assured that the present Government would be capable of implementing the expected reforms.

Speaking at Parliament, he said that it shows how the IMF has also changed its stance on Sri Lanka which was taken by them earlier.

“The IMF mission to Sri Lanka said previously that this country needs a Government that has a mandate to carry on the reforms. But now what has happened is that they have disbursed the funds to this Government ruled by an unelected President. So it’s very clear that even the IMF has changed its previous stance on Sri Lanka. We cannot accept this,” he said.

The Chief Opposition Whip also noted that this Government has no mandate and moral right to implement the reforms which were recommended by the IMF as they were elected by the people to implement what is completely different from these.

“This Government has no mandate to continue with the IMF process. We have learned that the Government is going to privatise even profitable State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). We would like to ask the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MPs who gave them a mandate to do so? Is this the mandate given by 6.9 millions of people in 2019?,” he questioned.

Meanwhile, speaking in Parliament on Thursday (23) SJB MP Eran Wickremaratne claimed that the IMF would look at its own Transparency policy if they allowed the deletion of some of the most important sections in the IMF report.

“It is stated in the first page of the report, which provides extended financial credit facilities to Sri Lanka, that the IMF’s transparency policy would allow for the deletion of market-sensitive information and premature disclosure of the authorities’ policy intentions in published staff reports and other documents. I can understand as a former banker that nobody should reveal market information. But I do not agree with the clause which says they must not disclose the authorities’ policy intention,” he said.

He further highlighted that the SJB would not agree with the non-transparent method of not disclosing the policies that should be followed by the IMF.

President Ranil Wickremasinghe tabled the IMF report in Parliament last week after the IMF Executive Board granted its approval for the bailout worth $ 2.3 billion for Sri Lanka.