Appointment of COPA Chairman: Govt. breaches earlier assurance, opposition seeks reversal of it

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

As the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) appointed its MP Aravinda Senarath as the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) despite earlier assurance that the opposition will be given the opportunity of heading it, Chief Opposition Whip Gayantha Karunathilleka said his party and others in the opposition will seek a revision of it.

NPP national list MP Senarath was appointed when the ruling party COPA met last afternoon.

“All opposition parties came to a consensus that none of their members would be nominated for any committee till President Anura Kumara Dissanayake responded to their request to increase opposition representation in all parliamentary committees. The opposition also decided to boycott committee meetings until they received a positive response from the President. However, the ruling party has gone ahead and had appointed a Chairman,” Mr. Karunathilleka told Daily Mirror.

“We will go for a dialogue with the government in order to seek a revision of the appointment and thereby see to it that an opposition member is appointed as the COPA chairman,” he added.