By Shamindra Ferdinando

The newly elected National People’s Power (NPP) government intends to restructure the existing Sectoral Oversight Committees (SOCs) meant to examine Bills except those defined in Article 152 of the Constitution, treaties and reports, including annual and performance reports pertaining to institutions coming under their purview.

Parliament and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would examine the government’s proposal in this regard, authoritative sources told The Island.

Sources said that both parties agreed that expenditure could be curtailed through proper restructuring. The UNDP over the years provided a significant amount of funding for strengthening of SOCs, in addition to providing expertise.

SOCs could also examine any other matter referred to them by Parliament or any Committee or a Minister relating to the subjects and functions within their jurisdiction, sources said.

Altogether there were17 SOCs in the last parliament and the majority of them didn’t function properly, sources said. The SOC process attracted public attention late last year when the US invited heads of all SOCs except Colombo District Lawmaker Rear Admiral (retd.) Sarath Weerasekera who led the one on national security. Weerasekera is on record as having said that the US embassy in Colombo sidelined him because of criticism of the US ambassador Julie Chung’s role in the high profile campaign that led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster.

The fully sponsored 10-day programme gave lawmakers an opportunity to study the committee process in the U.S. Congress. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) facilitated the programme. However, quite a number of MPs who represented SOCs in the last parliament either hadn’t contested the last general election or were defeated, hence the responsibility on the part of the Parliament to pay a lot more attention to the proposed restructuring process.

Parliament introduced the SOC system during the yahapalana administration. The system allowed selected youth to represent SOCs thereby participating in the process, sources said, adding that the operation of the committee system was of pivotal importance.