Opposition legislators say they are dissatisfied with the manner in which the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) worked during the last session with Government members using the oversight committee to push forward policy issues and not scrutinising the accounts of public institutions.
Open disagreement between Government and Opposition members of the Committee came to light after COPE Chairman Minister John Seneviratne presented its report to Parliament on Wednesday which led to both the UNP and the JVP saying they did not agree with the contents of the report on the reactivation of the Sri Lanka Press Council (SLPC).
UNP Kurunegala district MP Dayasiri Jayasekera who was the lone Opposition legislator present on the day the decision to reactivate the Press Council was taken, said COPE was not a place where policy decisions of the Government are taken but where the accounts of public enterprises are examined.
“I didn’t agree with the contents of the report on decisions regarding the Press Council. That is a Government decision,” Mr.Jayasekera said.
JVP MP Vijitha Herath too said the JVP did not agree with the contents regarding the SLPC. “Our members did not see a draft of the report before it was submitted and we don’t agree with the inclusion in it of the decision to reactivate the Press Council,” Mr.Herath said.
He added that the JVP was dissatisfied with the manner in which the Committee operates with a select number of institutions being summoned before it.
On December 3, 2008 the Committee discussed the Sri Lanka Press Council (SLPC) which comes under the Ministry of Mass Media and Information. Here the major issues and problems discussed about the SLPC was that after 2002, the Press Council was inactive and there was no board despite a decision to revive it in 2006.
There are groups which suspect that the Council will suppress the work of the press. This is an unfounded suspicion, the Committee said.
Hence the Committee has decided that the Press Council was now essential and it was essential that the Board was reconstituted at a very early date and the appointments made.
The total number of members in the Committee is 33 of which 16 are Opposition members. However less than half its members had attended committee meetings during its last session. Its quorum remains four even though its membership has gone up from its original 12 to 33. |
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