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PM to get powers to sack corrupt officials
Standing Orders of Parliament will be amended to empower the Prime Minister to take action against officials in state enterprises found guilty of mismanagement, financial frauds and corruption by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), COPE Chairman DEW Gunasekara said.He said the amendment would require the Prime Minister to inform Parliament within six months as to the actions taken on the allegations levelled against public enterprises which have been charged with acts of corruptions and fraud in the final COPE report.
“This is our response to the displeasure expressed by Parliamentarians about the inability to take prompt action against officials in public enterprises found guilty of acts of corruption during their tenure. In the final reports submitted to Parliament during the past few years, I have named several loss-making public enterprises and those whose performance has been below par and named those who were responsible for such acts of mismanagement, financial irregularities and corruption but it has been of no avail in the absence of a proper mechanism to take action against them,” Mr. Gunasekara who was also a former Minister of Human Resources told Daily Mirror.
Another amendment to SOs is that the Chairmen of COPE and the Public Accounts Committee must be members of the opposition. Amendments are expected to be presented in Parliament within the next two weeks and passed by April.
Mr. Gunasekara said the COPE final report for 2014 with details on the inquiries carried out on 244 government-owned enterprises would be handed over to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa in March.
In its Interim Report, Mr. Gunasekara was highly critical on the non-compliance with rules and regulations, inefficiency and non-transparent transactions in a majority of state ventures despite repeated requests by COPE to get their act together.
Mr. Gunasekara said two adverse opinions in respect of two institutions was the recommendation for the removal of Chairmen and General Managers at certain state ventures through requests made to relevant ministers.
“The COPE in all its previous reports to Parliament has repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain financial and administrative discipline at public enterprises. To ensure the smooth financial management, the COPE has appointed a special body of inquiry comprising COPE members. COPE has completed 598 inquiries within a period of four years as opposed to 670 during 31 years since 1979,” Mr. Gunasekara said adding that it was a record in the history of the legislature.
He said on a directive by the Committee, the State-owned companies registered under the Companies Law have now been brought under the scrutiny of COPE and it has been able to contribute appreciably towards the enhancement of good governance in so far as parliamentary control on finance was concerned.
Mr. Gunasekara thanked the Auditor-General’s Department, the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department of National Budget of the General Treasury for their co-operation. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
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