• Chief Opposition Whip claims Standing Orders may be suspended by Govt. to take leadership of watchdog committees
• Chief Govt. Whip denies such decision made yet

While stating that the main Opposition in Parliament, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), would nominate the same two SJB MPs as Chairmen of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the Committee on Public Finance (COPF), Chief Opposition Whip and Attorney Lakshman Kiriella raised concerns yesterday (13) that the Government may suspend the Standing Orders and appoint its own nominees as the chairpersons of the two important watchdog committees.

Speaking to The Daily Morning on Sunday (12), Kiriella pointed out that since the Government appears to be acting with arrogance, it may suspend the Standing Orders as it did in 2019 and give the Chairperson posts to their representatives.

During the third session of the ninth Parliament, SJB MPs Kabir Hashim and Dr. Harsha de Silva were the Chairmen of the COPA and COPF, respectively. President Ranil Wickremesinghe prorogued Parliament with effect from midnight on 27 January, and the fourth session of the Ninth Parliament commenced last Wednesday (8).

However, Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga, reacting to the above statement, told The Daily Morning on Sunday: “We have not decided yet. I don’t know why he has told you this,” inquiring in turn as to whether the Opposition had done anything wrong for the Government to think in such a manner.

Kiriella further told The Daily Morning that the SJB would also nominate the same members to COPF, COPA, and the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), which was headed by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government MP Ranjith Bandara in the third session of the ninth Parliament.

“In consultation with the Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa, we would be nominating our members soon. The members who were there last time would be represented. Under the Standing Orders, the Chairpersonship of the COPF was given to the Opposition. We nominated Dr. de Silva. To the COPA, we nominated Hashim and that was through elections. We do not know what will happen this time around. The Government can suspend Standing Orders and give them to anybody. Last time, the Speaker of the House Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana and then-Leader of the House and incumbent Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena surreptitiously submitted a motion to suspend the Standing Orders on a day when there were only a few Opposition MPs in Parliament in 2019. The Government might do it this time also. They suspended the Standing Orders and gave the relevant post to their member, and what did he do? He hid the financial situation from the country and in turn, no one knew that the country was bankrupt. They gave it to one of their cronies and he hid everything from the Parliament. He didn’t dispute that the country was going bankrupt. By appointing their stooges, they hid everything from the country and the Parliament. If we were appointed in 2019, according to the Standing Orders, we would have disclosed the whole thing and the Government would have gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sooner. The Government can suspend Standing Orders and give them to their stooges”. 

On 10 February, new members were nominated to serve in the COPF from the side of the Government for the fourth session of the ninth Parliament. The nominations, made by the Committee of Selection, were announced by Speaker Abeywardana. The MPs have been selected according to the provisions of the Standing Order 121 of the Parliament and the motion agreed to by Parliament.