Kiriella made his party’s suspicions known during a meeting the prime minister had with a group of UNP politicians at his office yesterday (07).

According to him, the report has been prepared without any expert advice and top officials of the AG’s Department disagree with its content.

The AG begins the report by saying he has no specialist knowledge about finances and the economy, and that he has prepared it without advice by experts in those fields, Kiriella noted.

He should reveal to the country as to whether an invisible political hand pushed him to speed up the report, he said.

The UNP wanted an expert report, which could have totally different opinions, he added.

Minister Daya Gamage said the government had a responsibility to get Mahendran’s name cleared.

M. Velukumar resigned from COPE in protest against the report not being made available in Tamil, he said.

Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the treasury had decided to issue bonds to obtain two to three billion rupees in the last three weeks, but pressure on the governor had prevented it.

Even the new governor would have to issue bonds to fulfil the treasury’s needs, he noted.

Minister Vajira Abeywardena said the dispute had given fuel to VAT protesters, and SLFP politicians fearing the government would collapse had leaned towards Mahinda Rajapaksa.

But, it boomeranged on the SLFP in the end, he added.