While the government got parliamentary approval for a whopping supplementary estimate of Rs 2.8 billion to cover the costs of next week’s SAARC summit in Colombo, it was the appointment of two cabinet ministers to head two of the most important parliamentary committees, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that raised questions on how committed this government was to accountability and transparency in the management of public funds.
The two committees were reconstituted last month after the previous committees lapsed following President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to prorogue Parliament in May. COPE was previously headed by MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa and PAC by MP Rauff Hakeem who was an opposition legislator when he was appointed to the post. While Mr.Hakeem subsequently became a cabinet minister for a brief period before re-joining the opposition, Mr.Wijedasa who started out as a government member too joined the opposition ranks last December.
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| Anura Priyadharshana Yapa |
There is nothing illegal in a cabinet minister chairing these committees because the government enjoys the majority in them and hence can have a person of its choice installed in the Chair. But how ethical were such appointments was the query that was raised by the UNP as well as MP Wimal Weerawansa’s group in Parliament.
When the issue came up in Parliament on Tuesday, the day before the ministers were appointed, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesingha said that the financial management of this government was already weak and cited the losses incurred by the new airline-Mihin Air- which has run into millions of rupees. He also said it was customary for an opposition MP to chair these committees so as to ensure more accountability in government financial management.
During these discussions, when one of the MPs asked Speaker W.J.M.Lokubnadra whether he thought it was right to appoint cabinet ministers to such positions, the Speaker said if he had the power he would not have done so because minister’s have their hands full with ministerial work. However he added he had no power to chose who headed what.
Power and Energy Minister John Seneviratna now heads COPE which in its last report presented to Parliament in 2007 cited the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) as one of the institution’s that faced the most number of allegations of financial irregularities. Though no one is pointing a finger at the minister for any misdoings, it doesn’t however help build public confidence in a parliamentary committee that is supposed to probe waste, mismanagement and corruption in institutions, when it has as its head the minister under whose very purview the CEB comes.
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| John Seneviratna |
The PAC is now headed by Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa. The UNP cried foul over the manner in which he was appointed saying that the inaugural meeting of the committee had not started on time prompting the opposition MPs to walk out and the committee comprising only government members had met and unanimously elected Minister Yapa.
However, Speaker Lokubandara overruled UNP objections raised in the House saying the appointment was not irregular. It’s worth mentioning here that in many legislatures around the world including India and the UK the Public Accounts Committees are headed by opposition members.
Committee matters aside, the decision by the LTTE to announce a unilateral ceasefire to coincide with the upcoming SAARC summit too came up for discussion in the House when MP Weerawansa asked if the Government was once again being approached by the Norwegians to convey the news of the ceasefire and warned that another conspiracy was in the making to stop the advances being made by the military.
The government reply must have helped allay some of Weerawansa’s fears because Leader of the House Nimal Siripala De Silva said the government had no intention of getting duped by the LTTE into halting military operations.
As the country heads into an important week and readies itself to host seven South Asian heads of state, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has invited all 225 MPs to attend the event and show their solidarity with Sri Lanka for an important event such as the SAARC summit. That maybe asking for too much from most of our politicians. |
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