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Ensure 2005-2013 Presidential Commissions’ findings tabled in House: JVP to Speaker
View(s):The JVP will appeal to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa to ensure that findings of Presidential Commissions of Inquiry appointed between 2005 and 2013, are tabled in Parliament, so that they can be made public.JVP leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the Sunday Times that he will bring up the matter at the next Party Leaders’ meeting that is held in Parliament. “Millions of rupees have been spent on these Commissions and, while the majority of the reports were handed over to the President, many of them have not been made public,” he said.
Recently, in reply to a question raised in Parliament by MP Dissanayake, it was revealed that for 17 Presidential Commissions appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa between 2005 and 2013, the Government had spent over Rs 272 million (Rs 272,793,583). Of the 17 Commissions, 16 had submitted their reports to the President, but the findings of a majority of them have remained undisclosed.
Some of these Commissions include the one appointed in 2006 to probe the murder of TNA Batticaloa District MP Joseph Pararajasingam, and the Commission appointed in 2010, to probe the death of a Ruhuna University undergraduate. Another is the Commission appointed to probe the VAT fraud case in the Inland Revenue Department in 2007.
Other Commissions that have submitted their findings include the one appointed in 2007 to probe failed Finance companies, as well as the Commission appointed in 2006 to probe Government arms procurements between 2000 and 2005.
Numerous Presidential Commissions appointed during this period to deal with abductions and disappearances of persons, as well as human rights (HR) violations too, have not had their findings disclosed. The Commission that cost the Government most is the eight-member Commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge Nissanka Kumar Udalagama, appointed in 2006, to probe allegations of serious HR violations, which incurred a little over Rs 95.9 million.
In comparison, the eight-member Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) cost the Government around Rs 18.9 million.According to documents tabled in the House, the costs on other Presidential Commissions include around Rs 21 million for the VAT fraud case, failed Finance Companies Commission cost around Rs 25 million, while the one appointed in 2005 to probe the occurrences of natural disasters such as tsunamis, cost the State around Rs 20.1 million,.
Leader of the House, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena replying on behalf of the Government, said that it is not mandatory for such reports to be tabled in Parliament, in keeping with the Presidential Commissions of Inquiry Act. Meanwhile, the findings of ministerial level committees appointed to probe various incidents too, remain the same. A committee appointed in November 2012, to probe the Welikada prison riot that left around 27 inmates dead, is yet to be made public, as well as the report on the death of a Free Trade Zone worker who was shot dead by police during a protest march.