Proof that the Institute of Chartered Accounts in Sri Lanka are rogues even today!

JUST LOOK AT THIS.

The Financial Times of Friday, 21st of July published an article showing the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Lasantha Wickremasinghe handing out the First Copy of " A Supplement to A Preparer's Guide to Integrated Corporate Reporting" by CA Sri Lanka, IRCSL presented to IIRC CEO.

See link for the exact detail please:

http://www.ft.lk/article/630142/First-copy-of--A-Supplement-to-A-Preparer-s-Guide-to-Integrated-Corporate-Reporting--by-CA-Sri-Lanka--IRCSL-presented-to-IIRC-CEO

It clearly states that the(Intergrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka)  IRCSL Chairman is prominent Chartered Accountant Asite Talwatte.

Now how can Mr Talwatte be the IRCSL Chairman and ALSO be a director of DIMO which won the best Integrated Reporting Award at the CMA Award Ceremony on Monday, July 17th 2017.

Recusing himself from the judging panel is simply not enough as the whole project is NOT transparent. So it is simply a sharing of the spoils amongst interested parties, without ANY regard to basic ethics.

Have they NOT heard of RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS that need to be disclosed. Where is it anywhere in the DIMO accounts of Mr Talwatte's connection to the IRCSL?

This makes both DIMO's winning of the award invalid in ETHICS but also the ICASL being complicit in NOT pointing this out to the broader public.

We cannot expect our Auditors who we rely on for fairness to break every rule of fair play by themselves, and expect us to trust their audit certificate. Which Planet do these accountants live in?

This is a serious lapse of judgement by the profession and I would like the whole Council of the ICASL to resign and reconstitute themselves with other people if they are to regain this lost credibility.

I need to go into the absurdity and duplicity of the DIMO company accounts NOT highlighting one of the most material transactions in the body of the Audit Report as reported in the earlier BLOG entry. See below for link to that.

http://pattapalboru.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-disgrace-that-is-dimo-using.html

So when Sri Lankan accounting body encourages being misleading, who can we rely on?

This is the sad state of our Country yest again painfully obvious for all to see, but all in the know are completely BLIND to this clear as daylight fact.

Cocaine Haul - Something fishy going on - read between the lines

It is simply absurd that you can find cocaine in bags as soon as you open a container, as reported in the media. Either the media is misreporting it or the people are lying! What is it?

No way will anyone send cocaine in PLAIN VIEW for every one opening the container to see.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2017/07/21/local/122758/cocain-haul-seven-arrested

Further there are TWO completely contradictory stories as one says the police got a tip off and that is how it was found and then SATHOSA says its employees or manpower workers are the ones that reported this upon opening of the container.

Here again it is simply obvious that one party is lying, and surely it cannot be the police making these false statements!

What is going on, and those arrested are the driver and some of the workers. Surely are you implying that they had anything to do with a sealed container, as reported, or was it NOT sealed at the time of opening in front of sufficient witnesses so that corroborative evidence can be obtained.

Something really SMELLS here. Who are the culprits?

I have another story that says that since last year imports of sugar from Brazil has been stopped. If so when did this consignment come? Has it been sitting somewhere in a container yard for a year?

Why is there NO investigation on this find? Who is trying to kabosh any investigation?

More questions than answers.

I am sad that there is strict enforcement of tobacco and betal leaf chewing mix while there is a free for all of hard drugs on sale in Sri Lanka. That is simply NOT tenable.

Why like Dengue does not the Govt. use their might to put a complete stop to this drug trade that is aimed at our young people turning them into addicts to ruin our society?

Who is behind this coup against our society? Are our leaders and politicians at the heart of this tragedy that is worse than any previous tragedy that has befallen this beautiful Country.

Why are the people silent? Why is civil society silent to the most fearsome Tsunami that this Country has ever faced?

Questions with NO ANSWERS - with NO ONE TO BLAME, or is there?

Emmerson – The President – Wijedasa Rajapaksha WHO STRANGLED WHOM?

As if the soap opera continues, our leaders live a life of shooting themselves in the foot. They just don’t seem to understand news and if they are playing to the gallery, meaning their constituents for support even that appears to have failed.

I am referring to the damning report by the UNs Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism about the state of affairs STILL continuing in Sri Lanka and the Justice Minister’s outburst about the incompetence of the personage who signed off on the report.

First, will the Justice Minister ever be appointed to such a position in a world body? Despite a double dubious doctorate I somehow doubt it.

Secondly, by his outburst, did he further denigrate Sri Lanka in the eyes of the world. He certainly did, and for that he is a traitor to the Country.

http://groundviews.org/2017/07/20/the-gloves-are-off-reactions-to-ben-emmersons-statement-on-torture-counterterrorism/

The link above from Groundviews relating to this incident is shown above, though I am not at all a fan of this blog, I am trying to be objective in deciphering our Justice Minister and Presidents public outbursts on the matter.  

Thirdly, When the President PUBLICLY questioned his rights to talk to detainees, did he realize that permission was sought and granted so to do? He feigned ignorance or worse believed it was NOT in his purview and so said he had NO right to question detainees. Further embarrassing himself and his office of the Presidency, that then questions the integrity of our leaders.

All this leads to self-inflicted trouble by our own leaders against the Country, something which is opposite of what we expect our elected leaders to do.

So how can Sri Lanka again extricate itself from the mistakes of their leaders, when we are trying ever so hard to make the world believe in our good intentions in keeping with our UN obligations. If we were not part of the UN or signatories then it would be OK to do anything and NO one has any right to castigate our leaders on lapses or failings at all.

All this is very embarrassing and worse when they portray the UN representative as being out of bounds, to hide their incompetence at not being mindful of their PR in accommodating him so that he reports in conciliatory terms. We got the damning report we did because of the our Justice Minister, and NOT inspite of him. So it is directly as a result of his inability to grasp the significance of the problem and PR sweet talk, that we got a bad report.

When jokers like this who resort to educational qualifications to hide their personal inadequacies and then are unable to diplomatically sweet talk foreign diplomats so they cow down and provide a watered down version for publication, we get this result.

The issue we cannot fault Emmerson’s report because we know that even citizens who are arrested today, no matter what race or religion are routinely STILL tortured to exact or extract confessions, as the law enforcement officers believe STILL that is the ONLY way to get a confession to the crime. They don’t believe that people confess to crimes they do not do, under this method, as it is the lying or covering up that we routinely do when questioned first, and NO ONE really tells the truth unless he or she is threatened.

I am not justifying torture, but merely reporting as it is. We have to gradually determine how sophisticated we get from using lie detectors etc. to use a more humane means of extracting the truth from suspects to crime.

We have a lying culture that has come from the Top that is the Leadership of the Country. This has empowered every criminal to take the attitude, that if the leader of the Country is a liar, then there is nothing wrong for him to lie too, as that is simply part of the way things are done.

In a round a bout type of way, what I am saying is that it is time for our leaders to tell the truth, then when our criminals lie, even a lie detector will detect lying so much easier, and this issue of having to torture will gradually decline and hopefully disappear one day. This is NOT going to change overnight, whatever A UN person says.

Where the mind boggles is that a lawyer of Wijedasa’s disrepute does not know these facts as he has dealt with enough cases where his clients have lied or his clients have been lied to and he has engaged in means to disprove their statements as fiction.

An appeal therefore to the leaders of Sri Lanka to bat for Sri Lanka first, and put themselves firmly second rather than their political survival first at the expense of Sri Lanka. This way we will not allow ourselves to fall into this embarrassing situation where the Minister of Justice, publicly questioned the competence of a UN official which puts the whole UN system  into disrepute and worse ricochets back on him as no one will then believe what he says, except the small number of his fans and supporters who should not be the people he is addressing

The Disgrace that is DIMO – using concepts out of context to bamboozle!

Oh Please Where are our journalists? Where are our investigative journalists who should pick up these common sense wrongs of society and inform the public? They are too busy enjoying the scraps thrown by the likes of these companies to report cautiously, inquisitively, voraciously, and questioning the veracity of the statements made in full public view!

DIMO or Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC, won the award for the Nth consecutive year as having the BEST Integrated Accounting Report in Sri Lanka of the Companies that entered the competition at the award ceremony held at the opening ceremony of the CMA Annual Conference at the Cinnamon Lakeside on Monday, July 17^th 2017 beating out numerous other Companies.

What is Integrated Accounting? – It is defined as “a Report which is a CONCISE Communication about how an organization’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term!”

Frankly, it is anything but. Shame shame shame. Shame for the CMA in giving them this award, shame for DIMO in even believing they achieve the above objective from their 185page small type report, which is anything but concise and nothing if misleading with verbocity of disinformation simply aimed at fooling the reader and observer in broad daylight.

In some senses one can fool people by not giving any information, in this case it is fooling with too much information aimed at making the reader believe in both transparency and objectivity, but if read in context by a careful, knowledgeable and half way intelligent person, it is clear the LAST thing that DIMO even attempts to do is to create value for their main stakeholders who are its shareholders, and in the sense of a Quoted Company whose aim SHOULD be to over time to encourage WIDE SPREAD share-ownership, it is doing anything but.

Read the report if you wish as it is available on-line to disprove my hypothesis, on link https://cdn.cse.lk/cmt/upload_report_file/694_1496746469.pdf

Lets go straight to page 136 which shows that the Directors’ Emoluments have risen from Rs300M to Rs500M year on year, the latest being for the year ended 31^st March 2017. This is about the same as the POST TAX PROFITS – shameful. Hardly one that will encourage a person to buy DIMO shares, if the Directors simply help themselves to the LOOT. Any reasonable person will say it is simply untenable that a public company is allowed to this, even OPENLY!

Then go to page 168 where you see that the top 20 shareholders own 83% of the company, hardly one that is encouraging widespread ownership. Further you would note that EPF as No1 own about 20% of the Company. Who is the EPF? Well, they are the Trustees of the Private Sector Workers Pension Plan, in short the money of the MOST productive part of our society. Sadly this is managed by the CBSL, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and typical of Governmental Bodies DOES NOTHING TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE THEY PROMISE TO SERVE. We have just heard about their dishonesty haven’t we?

At least the EPF have a DUTY to question if the Company they have a 1/5^th interest in is paying its directors such a MAMMOTH remuneration when page 168 shows that they ARE ALSO the large shareholders, who enjoy Dividend INCOME in addition to directors fees! Where is the Independent Director here?  A prominent accountant on the Board, he should question this first and foremost, or is the trust placed in him MISPLACED, as he has waived on this payment without question, because he too is paid handsomely? Is this just a BRIBE to keep quiet? So where is the ICASL on this? All rogues too leading it.

What am I coming down to explain? It is simply jobs for the boys and what are they doing? They are sharing the loot amongst themselves, while the Stock Market Tanks, with NO one wishing to risk their money in the SL Stock Market when such practices are rampant, akin to STEALING IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, or daylight robbery of the people’s money, yes the money of the millions of hardworking people of Sri Lanka via their pension plan invested in this company. Yes none is doing anything about it. Where is the independent press?

I have not picked on DIMO for any particular reason, it was just when I saw they had won the award for the Best Integrated Report and I then went to look at this so called BEST report and look what I found! It is what I have just reported to you my reader. So much for the johnnies who are bribed to award losers!

If this is by chance with NO malice, how many ROGUES have we got at the top of the Corporate Ladder? John Keells who came second will come within my periscope next. We know how well the Board pay themselves in Share Options to the extent that if you see from the start of the Directors Appointment to today, how many shares they got, how many sold, how much they benefitted this Rs500M pales in comparison to the Rs5Billion ripped off by the TOP man there, without a MOO from the shareholders who are held hostage!

Come on guys, who will invest in a market so corrupt and inequitable that they do NOTHING to enhance the value of the most important shareholder namely the small shareholder, whose faith in Stocks is the only way to encourage widespread share-ownership. CSE no doubt is still fast asleep day dreaming!   

Saudi Arabia AGAIN shown to be NO 1 in funding Islamic Terrorism

The latest report out today, in the UK, see link below confirms that along with funding WAHABISM, Saudi Arabia is DIRECTLY responsible for funding Islamic Terrorism that has gripped this world and blame is misdirected.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4666732/Saudi-Arabia-chief-funder-Islamic-extremism-UK.html

It is NOT the followers of Islam who should be singled out for discrimination and antagonism, but the TORMENTOR IN CHIEF Saudi Arabia, who should be named, shamed, ISOLATED and most of all lambasted by the world, including the United Nations for their unethical behavior throughout the world that has NOW resulted in the EXTREME FUNDAMENTALISM we see in the world today, exported by the Saudi misguided fanatics, who are using anti-Islamic means to perpetuate a CULT called WAHABISM that has NO PLACE in ISLAM, but which to date has not been the focus of world IRE due to countries, mainly the US and UK being bought out by Saudi Largesse, be it in helping the defence industries in those Countries, but also nobbling their leaders into submission, by not openly accusing them of their gross violations of international law.

Quoting from a paragraph of the report, see link above for further details: 

“Saudi Arabia is 'at the top of the list' of countries exporting extremist Islam to the UK, a new report says.

The kingdom has engaged in a 60-year, multi-million dollar campaign to advance its extremist brand of Wahhabi Islam in British Muslim communities, according to a study by the Henry Jackson Society.

This has been achieved through endowment grants to mosques, the funding of Islamic education institutions and the training of imams, the report authors say.”

·        Several gulf states 'intentionally' exporting Islamic extremism to UK, report says

·        This is done through grants to mosques and education funding, authors claim

·        Saudi Arabia 'is undoubtedly at the top of the list' of countries funding efforts

·        Henry Jackson Society is calling for full and open public inquiry

Pray tell me if this is the case in the UK, has it not also been the case in Sri Lanka, and we must not fear to expose the true face of this infiltration into Sri Lanka, that has relegated the majority Muslims into forced silence NOT wishing to upset the proverbial apple-cart, and denounce this heretical behavior! for fear of losing their rights to perform Haj, which again is unfairly used by Saudi Arabia to throttle dissent against their abhorrent irreligious anti- Islamic Acts.

I would say instead of denouncing the Henry Jackson Society for pointing this out, it is better to do some soul searching and come to the realization that the Frankenstein's Monster they created will ultimately destroy Saudi Arabia itself, as soon as day follows night. 

BAD KARMA I WOULD SAY to indulge in ungodly acts!

The Concerns of the Sangha with regards to allegations – are they warranted?

The President has been informed about unprecedented allegations against Buddhism by persons unknown and reasons unknown and this has been extensively reported in the Media this morning. See link for details of the claims

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Kotte-Sangha-Sabha-writes-firm-letter-to-President--131866.html

Firstly, what would we expect the President of this Country to do? All he really can, is to advise the public, all citizens of this Country, to refrain from making unsubstantiated claims on Social Media etc and more accurately plead for sanity as we JUST cannot control social media or even ban it, as the issue will snowball in a different direction, and create further problems, far more than they will potentially solve.

If truth were to be told, there are allegations, unfounded or with evidence against EVERY religion in social media, as there are people who have an agenda. Civilized people only make founded observations and should NOT make it personal unless substantial evidence is available.

Take the case today, when a senior Cardinal of the Catholic Church has been accused of pedophilia and action is about to be taken against him. This is against a priest and NOT the Church, except some intimation that the Church itself was remiss at not doing enough to prevent its repetition once discovered.

It is therefore IMPORTANT to keep these issues in perspective and have a clear head when making these Press Statements about the insults to the main religion in Sri Lanka, obviously by people of other faiths, who would under the normal course of events NOT have much fondness for Buddhism. It must be noted that there are enough and more Buddhists, Clergy included who take umbrage at other religions and are NOT happy about conversions!

Conversions of adults should not be one that people should get unduly flustered about, as it happens in all directions, where Buddhist become Christian and Christians become Buddhists, however there is a difference where a Muslim person wants to become a Buddhist or Christian they face even more antagonism by other Muslims, than Buddhists do if a Buddhist converts to Christianity. Have you heard of any violations if a Christian becomes a Buddhist amongst the Christian Community? Well then similarly a Buddhist should not get overly antagonistic if it works the other way.

We should therefore apply the rules or laws equally and not make special cases for people to exploit. In short, NO ONE should be allowed to unfairly criticize other religions, without cause, however one must be cognizant of the fact that in this era of social media, it is difficult to bring offenders to justice.

The best means to counter any religious intolerance is NOT by force, but by living by example so that one’s religion is one to be emulated and NOT branded insincere or downright sinful. In that respect there is greater pressure on any MAJORITY religion whether it is Buddhism in Sri Lanka or Christianity in UK, to live by example of the precepts of the religion.

Lately due to behavior that is NOT in keeping with an elder of the faith, these practitioners have set bad examples, that is used by other religions as examples of religious behavior. It is then up to the Maha Sangha to take a stand against that person or Priest and Counter any suggestions that they may be in cahoots and are also in agreement with his despicable behavior.

It is incumbent upon the Buddhist Clergy in Sri Lanka therefore to live and behave by example so that they do NOT sound like hypocrites. If this is the case they can easily deflect any suggestions or innuendo made against Buddhism as merely being the work of fundamentalists of other religions which even those religions DO NOT condone, and so would be vilified by one and all.

I am not sure how the President will handle this thorny problem as the Kotte Declaration requests that the President take steps to stop this attack on the principle religion of Sri Lanka, without any rational basis for such attacks.

How can the President practically stop it, if he is unable to pin point who is making allegations? He cannot directly confront parties to ask for explanation.

Personally, from experience I know when a can of worms is shaken, the worms try to sneak out and cause even more problems, and instead of shutting out the issue, it just gets worse and you don’t know where else it will raise its ugly head. The old adage says let sleeping dogs lie, but in this case is the problem so grave, or is it just the perception of a few and NOT the many?

It is a matter for the Buddhist Sangha to immediately take a position that is acceptable to all or at least to a quorum before reaching out to the President for help. I am unsure if this has only affected the Kotte Sangha Saba or if it is a widespread perception. It is important to be PROPORTIONATE in acting on this fear or reality.

Personally I fear this is overkill, giving license to perpetrators to continue, as they are obviously having the desired effect on the target audience as their cajoling is to make them react, so they can use the REACTION for their benefit, rather than if it is completely pooh poohed as the work of some nut cases, then perhaps it will just die down. I rather suspect the advice the President will give is to simply ignore it, and NOT to exacerbate an issue out of proportion. 

School Admissions in Sri Lanka - Especially to Grade ONE

It is the time all over again for entry into Grade 1 for January 1st 2018

The Government has published the (two full pages of details on how the marks are allocated and how students are chosen for particular schools of the parents choice)

However as the article today shows how completely and UTTERLY despicable the whole process is, and if you were a parent with even a little bit of self respect and ability to afford it you would NOT in a million years want to go through this trial to get your child into a school this way.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/The-truth-about-school-admissions-131295.html

The link above shows an article that goes into detail about what actually happens, and why it is so unfair to the most qualified students especially those living literally NEXT door who cannot put their children to that school because of unfair and frankly illegal practices of the Politicians.

In fact I just saw in a a newspaper today, that a Principal of just one year in a Gampaha School has asked for a transfer immediately due to undue pressure from politicians.

This is simply untenable as the biggest headache principals face in Sri Lanka schools is the admission of students into Grade 1. There is a lot of bribery and money involved and parents are particularly bad on this as they somehow get a message accross that they are willing to pay so much to have their kid put in. So the bribe even if NOT solicited, is known prior to making the decision and so the Principal is faced with a huge dilemma, as they see these parents who are wealthy and they are absolutely penurious, and money TALKS! Its temptation staring at you.

How do you resolve this? I know it is for just 250 schools in the Country that this is a problem where the competition is fiercest. However there is NO REAL PLAN to resolve this crisis as parents are NOT willing to compromise when it come to which schools they will go to any lengths to put their children in!

Something to ponder, we are still trying to come up with the best solution for this NEVER ENDING problem.