Principles of Accountability; Parliamentary Oversight Committees
An open letter to COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, MP
Handunnetti-July 7, 2016, 9:23 pm
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 ;
*Purported violation of expected best practices of due process, good governance, transparency and professionalism , in a back drop of these bond issues being tainted, possibly by conflicts of interest, related party transactions, market manipulations and insider information;
*The State purportedly incurring significant future higher than optimum market interest payment costs over extended period of years;
*The beneficiary members of state run Employees Provident Fund, Employees Trust Fund, Savings and Insurance entities may have lost the completive market based best returns having invested via the secondary market instead of the primary markets;
*A limited number of connected parties may have benefitted significantly by way of unjust enrichment
In the above context, it may be best that you and the Committee members refresh your memory with the General Principles of Accountability of an Oversight Committee of Parliament. Towards this task I enclose some extracts from an OECD/DAC Governance network and South African Parliament dealing with these Principles of Accountability, especially those highlighted and underlines. (Refer attachment)
You and your members colleagues should also bear in mind that 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 – (Please refer attachment). 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.
I would be most grateful if copies of this note can kindly be placed before the Committee and copies thereof provided to all members, as the Committee progresses its inquiries connected with the examination of the Bond issues.
Chandra Jayaratne
cc. President
Prime Minister
Speaker
Leader of the House
Leader of the Oppositions
Chief Opposition Whip
Auditor General
