COPE tells govt. to undo SLIIT swindle

By Saman Indrajith

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has asked the government to act under the provisions of the Public Property Act against all responsible for an attempt to deprive the government of its ownership of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), established by the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund, and its control by an agreement signed on 12.05.2015 without any formal authority.

The COPE, chaired by Prof. Charitha Herath, at a meeting last week, unanimously agreed to propose to the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to hold a two-day debate on the two COPE reports tabled in the ninth Parliament.

The Second Report of the Committee on Public Enterprises tabled in Parliament on 06th April 2021 is a Special Report on the SLIIT. The debate on the Second Report, presented by the Committee, is expected to spark a far-reaching discussion in Parliament and within the country on the current status of the SLIIT and the steps to be taken in that regard.

The report prepared on the basis of an investigation by the Auditor General’s Department has recommended that the SLIIT be recognised as a non-governmental institution and that the decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers on 24.05.2017 not to include the said institution under any purview of the Ministry be reconsidered. It was also recommended that SLIIT be taken over by a Ministry after considering the contents of other Cabinet memoranda, pertaining to the institution.

The report, tabled in Parliament, also recommended that the institution be taken over by the Mahapola Fund.

Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara, State Minister Nalaka Godahewa, MPs Jagath Pushpakumara, Eran Wickramaratne, Harsha de Silva, Nalin Bandara, Shanakiyan Rajamanickam and Auditor General W.P.C. Wickramaratne were present at the meeting, Parliament sources said.