Monday, January 12, 2015

Now who is on for the Governor of the Central Bank? Time to de politicize

I know there are a few jokers jockeying for the position of Governor of the CB, if only because Nivard Cabral held sway for so long since July 2006 till his abrupt resignation without being answerable to the new administration for the sins of the old.

Get a grip. President Sirisena would do well NOT to appoint a political person, as this is initially for an interim period till the next general election in May, 2015, so I would recommend an interim appointment of a person who knows the CB inside out, for a period of 6 months and a Political appointee thereafter after a transition period of learning of about two months.

The CB Governor is an important position, and should NOT be a part of the inner circle of govt. but should be merely an advisory role for Govt. where they ask him for his advice on some policy decision that the Govt. intends to adopt so he can minimize risk to the economy of that decision.

The obvious choice of the interim would be the biggest critic of Cabraal, namely WA Wijewardena, and if that is too explosive an ex CB hand Dr Karunatilleke who is a safe pair of hands at the helm and well respected within the bank.

Let me reiterate that this is temporary, to shore up the confidence of the people within the Bank who have been politically ostracized for not toeing the line with Cabral and who need to be rehabilitated back into the mainstream within the bank.

ONLY an insider can do this task and NOT an outsider who will not be familiar with the workings of the institution. IT IS VV IMPORTANT to get the corrupted CB back on track, and some of the sins of the Cabral era will be exposed at this time too.

Let us hope our new leaders are intelligent enough to understand these basics, without jumping like a bull in a China Shop to make hasty decisions on this matter, especially as we await a very important election to strengthen the checks and balances put in place for a smooth running of the economy in a transparent and open manner, with full knowledge of the stakeholders and NOT the secrecy, and insider information they have been able to impart to the big Political players to make fortunes at the expense of the people and the hapless EPF that has also been looted as a result.

Corruption in selling banking licenses and future interest rate cuts being notified have been very corrosive in the past administration and should stop now.       

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arjuna mahendran should Have gotten this but for some reason he did not. He is a banker after all. There must be some intrigue?

Anonymous said...

Sirisena is just a scared little boy who is confused about all these governing issues.

The economy is been handled by Ranil alone(which is a good thing) but Ranil will always appoint a political appointee who he can trust to this position. The word is that it is Dinesh weerakkody who is a known UNP supporter.

Anonymous said...

Seems your readership (anon 1) has some good foresight