Committee on Public Finance presents report in House

The Committee on Public Finance yesterday presented a report to parliament which contains their opinion in regard to the budget and the government’s financial policy.

This document determines whether the budget is in line with government policy and was presented to the House last morning by the chairman of the committee, MP M. A. Sumanthiran. Mr. Sumanthiran, while accepting that there was a delay in presenting the report, said the delay was due to a lack of translators and due to the quantity of information given by the Ministry of Finance.

He charged that UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardene, who complained about the delay in presenting the report, did not participate in even a single meeting of the public finance committee. “MP Gunawardene was complaining about the delay in presenting the report but he did not participate in one finance committee meeting,”

Mr. Sumanthiran pointed out. Mr. Gunawardene, who responded to the charge, said Mr. Sumanthiran should have informed the House if there were practical issues with regard to the preparation of the report if there were any. He also stated that he did not participate in the sittings of the Public Finance Committee as it was not doing anything effective. “I did not want to waste my time attending sittings of a committee which has done nothing progressive,” he said.The Committee on Public Finance yesterday presented a report to Parliament which contains its opinion with regard to the budget and the government’s financial policy.

This document, which determines whether the budget is in line with government policy, was presented to the House by the Chairman of the committee MP M. A. Sumanthiran last morning.

Mr. Sumanthiran, while accepting that there was a delay in presenting the report, said the delay was due to a lack of translators and due to the quantity of information given by the ministry of finance.

He charged that UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardene, who complained about the delay in presenting the report, did not participate even in a single meeting of the public finance committee. “ MP Gunawardene was complaining about the delay in presenting the report but he did not participate in one finance committee meeting,” Mr. Sumanthiran pointed out.

Mr. Gunawardene, who responded to the charge, said Mr. Sumanthiran should have informed the House if there were practical issues with regard to the preparation of the report if there were any. Also he said he did not participate in the sittings of the Public Finance Committee as it was not doing anything effective. “ I did not want to waste my time attending sittings of a committee which has done nothing progressive,” he said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)