TISL renews call for MPs to publicly disclose their asset declarations

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) once again urged all 225 members of parliament to publicly disclose their declarations of assets and liabilities in the interest of strengthening their accountability and as an example of their commitment to an open democracy, the anti corruption agency said today. 

The global anti- corruption body said that in February this year, a group of 5 MPs from across party lines, came together to unilaterally publish their asset declarations in the public domain. The five MP’s who came forward to take this historic step towards changing the political culture of the country were,Tharaka Balasuriya, Vasudeva Nanayakkara,  M.A. Sumanthiran, Vidura Wickramanayake and State Minister Eran Wickramaratne. They were followed in the succeeding week by Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake and Ali Zahir Mowlana.

Whilst 30 June 2019 marks the deadline for all MPs to submit their Asset Declarations for 2018/19 to the relevant authorities, TISL urges all members to use this opportunity to also make their asset declarations publicly available. In letters addressed to all members of parliament in June, TISL expressed its willingness to publish the MPs asset declarations on www.tisrilanka.org/MPassets whilst encouraging them to also use their own websites or social media platforms to do the same.

Transparency International Sri Lanka has campaigned for many years to bring this information into the public domain, believing that greater openness by public representatives increases trust and ensures stronger accountability. This position was sanctioned by the Right to Information Commission in its order of December 2018, directing the Presidential Secretariat to release the Asset Declaration of the Prime Minister for 2015/16, pursuant to an RTI application filed by TISL.

TISL’s Executive Director Asoka Obeyesekere said that this is a non-partisan and apolitical issue where the driving force is the public demand for greater accountability from their elected representatives. "Granting the citizenry access to this information is a crucial step towards establishing a more open and accountable democracy. It has been TISL’s longstanding position that putting information in the hands of the people is the key to enhancing governance in Sri Lanka”.

Pix-TISL