Jayaratne Reminds Handunneththi And COPE Members Of Their Mandate

July 7, 2016

Good governance activist, Chandra Jayaratne has reminded Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Sunil Handunneththi of the importance refreshing his memory along with the members of COPE on the ‘the General Principles of Accountability of an Oversight Committee of Parliament.’

Chandra Jayaratne

In a letter addressed to Handunneththi on July 6, Jayaratne reiterated the importance for him and the members of the committee to ‘bear in mind’ that the Sri Lankan Legislative Enactments dealing with Bribery and Corruption, clearly defines in Section 70 of such enactment, what constitutes Corruption in relation to any public servant. Jayaratne also provided a copy of the enactment for the benefit of Handunnetti and his committee members.

“You will note from this provision that, where any public servant, with intent, to cause wrongful or unlawful loss to the Government, or to confer a wrongful or unlawful benefit/favour/advantage on himself, or any person, with knowledge that a loss will be caused to any person or the government , does any act which he is empowered to do or induces any other public servant to perform or refrain from performing that any act or uses information coming to his knowledge or participates in an making of any decision or induces any other person, directly or indirectly to perform or refrain from performing any act, shall be guilty of the offense of corruption,” he said in the letter which was CC’d to the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, Leader of the House, Leader of the Oppositions, Chief Opposition Whip and the Auditor General.

The letter also comes amidst allegations that UNP MPs who were members of the committee were trying to jeopardize action against ex-Governor of Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran, citing that the controversial Treasury bond transaction that took place in 2015 and 2016 which resulted in the State losing billions of rupees was not Mahendran’s fault.

The full text of Chandra Jayaratne’s letter is below;

6th July 2016 Registered Post
Sunil Handunnetti Esq.
Chairman,
Committee on Public Enterprises,
Parliament of Sri Lanka,
Parliamentary Complex,
Sri Jayewardenapura,
Kotte.

Dear Sir,

Principles of Accountability; Parliamentary Oversight Committees

I submit this letter to you, as you and other members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee –

“ Committee on Public Enterprises” -, address the challenging task of developing and presenting, an independent, professional, unbiased and value adding report to Parliament, on the Bond Issues made by the Public Debt Department of the Central Bank in 2015 and 2016, including the controversial issues that have led to significant public criticism on account of ;

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