News
Rs. 504mn spent on Special Presidential Coms., but questions over implementation
View(s):By Yoshitha Perera
Successive Governments have splurged Rs. 504mn on ten Special Presidential Commissions of Inquiry (PCoI) over the past eight years, an application to the Presidential Secretariat under the Right to Information Act has revealed.
The largest sum–Rs 120mn–was spent in 2020.
There was no information available on the outcomes of these Special PCoIs, which typically publish findings, advice and recommendations. It was, therefore, not possible to measure whether these expenditures had produced results in terms of implementation.
The disbursements to the Special PCoIs were from the Consolidated Fund between March 3, 2015, and June 30 this year. The Commissions appointed last year are still in effect.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed five Special PCoIs between 2020 and 2021. A total of Rs. 337mn was spent during his tenure, according to the Presidential Secretariat.
These were the Commissions to Investigate Political Victimisation; Commission to Investigate, Inquire and Report into Alleged Wrongdoings, Irregularities and Malpractices of Edirisinghe Trust Investments Ltd; Commission for Appraisal of the Findings of Previous Commissions and Committees and the Way Forward; Commission to Investigate Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law; and Commission into Irregularities at Sri Lanka Customs.
Between 2015 and 2017, the first three years of Yahapalanaya Government, the administration spent as much as Rs. 134mn on Special PCoIs. Their total for nearly five years (on five PCoIs) is Rs 254mn.
Former President Maithripala Sirisena set up the Special PCoI to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC); the Commission to Investigate and Inquire into and Report on the Issuance of Treasury Bonds between February 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016; Commission into Irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka; Commission to Probe Fraud and Corruption in his own Government; and the Commission into the Easter Sunday Bombings.
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