Parliament

Legislature troubled over consultative committees
By Chandani Kirinde, Our Lobby Correspondent
With the votes on the three ministries taken over by President Chandrika Kumaratunga due to come up for discussion on Wednesday, a fallout from the President's actions was once again the subject of much debate in Parliament.

This time round the controversy was triggered by senior People's Alliance parliamentarian representing the Gampaha District Jeyaraj Fernandopulle mentioning the problems that could arise out of the appointment of parliamentary consultative committees. This came after the Leader of the House W.J.M. Lokubandara under the Standing Orders moved the motion for the appointment of 42 such committees in Parliament on Thursday.

The number of consultative committees correspond to the number of Ministries that comprise the Cabinet. Mr. Fernandopulle informed Speaker Joseph Michael Perera on Friday that at present there was no provision for the consultative committees on the subjects of defence, Interior and mass media taken over by the President to function as Standing Orders of Parliament specifically states that the Chairman of such committees shall be the minister-in-charge of the subject and in a situation where the President is in charge of certain subjects, the Deputy Ministers of the concerned ministries could function as chairmen.

He suggested that the only way these committees could function was by amending the Standing Orders to enable the members of the consultative committees to select a person from among them as chairman. At that point the Speaker intervened to say that appointing deputy ministers was a matter for the President and there was nothing he could do about it.

There was much support for Mr. Fernandopulle's speech from government benches, with the Leader of the House saying that there was likely to be more confusion in the coming days with the votes of the three ministries scheduled for the 17th of this month.
Even though Mr. Lokubandara hinted that the government was unlikely to defeat the votes of these ministries, still it was not clear who would answer the queries raised about their functions.

Chief Government Whip Mahinda Samarasinghe pointed out that several other Parliamentary functions too had come to a standstill after the President's takeover with all party leaders in Parliament having agreed to avoid raising oral questions or adjournment questions directed at the three ministries of defence, interior and mass media as there was nobody in the House to answer the questions.

During Parliamentary debates prior to the take over of the ministries the largest number of oral questions was directed at the Interior Minister and most of them were by Colombo district PA parliamentarian Nimal Siripala De Silva. Last week several ministers had a difficult job fending off the allegations of corruption levelled at them by the opposition.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake had the unenviable task of countering the barrage of serious charges of corruption and waste, made by several opposition legislators, against the various institutions coming under Mr. Karunanayake's Ministry.

The Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) was the main target of the attack when several opposition members including Colombo district JVP parliamentarian Sunil Handunneti quoting from the Auditor General's report for this year highlighted several discrepancies in the accounting of CWE funds. Mr. Handunetti cited the case where the CWE allegedly paid out from its funds US $ 200,000 to a British rock band 'UB 40' for a concert in Colombo last year.

"How had 'UB 40' helped this country's economy? Today the CWE has been sold and we have lost an establishment that was near and dear to the common man", he said.
Mr. Karunanayake dismissed most of the opposition allegations as baseless and said his ministry was working to give a better deal to consumers in the country. He also challenged them to make these charges against him outside the cover of parliamentary privilege so that he could take appropriate action to defend himself.

During the week's many debates it was corruption charges that took centre stage with several People's Alliance Parliamentarians disclosing alleged misdeeds by government ministers. Kandy district PA Parliamentarian Mahindananda Aluthgamage who was in the forefront of the attacks said that the opposition has complied a dossier on 24 ministers which they would be handing over to the Commission Investigating Allegations of Bribery and Corruption.

Colombo district parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunga highlighted allegations of abuses taking place in the sports sector during the votes on the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. "The image that the country built up in the arena of world cricket has been ruined by the corruption of the administrators in the Cricket Board. Today it has become a company and is run by a group of people who are only interested in making money", Mr. Ranataunga alleged.

He also said that Sports Minister Johnston Fernando had gone on record as saying that he would support Thilanga Sumathipala to become the Chairman of the ICC.
"They must remember that ICC stands for the International Cricket Council and not International Criminal's Council", he said. The Sports Minister however saw the allegations levelled against the Cricket Board administrators by Mr. Ranatunga as something personal.

"You were defeated in the cricket board elections that is why you are saying all this. I will support any Sri Lankan, whether he is Mr. Sumathipala or anyone else if he can win a place in an international sports body", Mr. Fernando said. There were also a few refreshing contributions to the otherwise dull and repetitive set of speeches that had been heard ad nauseam on the floor of the House especially during the long drawn out committee stage of the Budget debate.

One among them was PA Anuradhapura district MP Duminda Dissanayake who spoke on the subject of Sports and Youth Affairs highlighting the many problems faced by the youth in the outstations. He said there was growing frustration among the youth because of the government's failure to keep its many promises made to this crucial segment of the population during election time.

Another PA legislator from the same district Tissa Karalliyadde speaking on the votes of the Ministry of Agriculture said that successive governments had done little more than pay lip service to maximize the potential of the agricultural sector in the country and suggested several ways in which this pathetic situation faced by the country's farmers could be remedied.

On Friday, the Speaker announced the appointment of Neil Parakrama Iddawela as the Assistant Secretary General of Parliament with effect from December 11.

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