The Chairman of Bank of Ceylon, Ronald C. Perera today said that the bank’s General Manager, D M Gunasekara has been “placed on leave until investigations are completed” amidst a contrasting claim made by the Finance Minister. Speaking to the media two days ago, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had announced that Gunasekera was “suspended with immediate effect” as a result of allegations including misuse of power and corruption.
The Nation below reproduces a message from the Chairman of Bank of Ceylon, issued for publication in the media a short while ago.
The Bank of Ceylon is a long, well established and respected banking institution with a history of more than seven and a half decades. My Board of Directors and I are deeply committed to sustain and enhance this reputation. This presents us with a challenge, which was greatly heightened due to the adverse publicity and negative sentiments, expressed in the media recently. This situation does not augur well for the Bank or the financial system as a whole considering the systemic importance of Bank of Ceylon to the country.
We believe that it is incumbent upon the Board to address this situation. In furtherance thereof, it has become necessary to determine the exposures to risk of several key functional areas of the Bank as well as to conduct special purpose audits, via the deployment of internal and external auditors.
As such, we felt it was appropriate to place the General Manager, Mr. D M Gunasekara, on leave, until investigations are completed such that the conduct of investigations is independent and impartial. We will take all steps to complete these investigations and clear the issues, within a short period of time.
As the Bankers to the nation, we are not only serving our stakeholders to fulfill their financial needs but also committed to maintaining practices of good governance, at the highest levels.
We sincerely hope that our stakeholders will appreciate these measures of good governance.
Chairman
Bank of Ceylon
Colombo, Sri Lanka