Dereliction of duty:

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s bid to seek explanation from those who hadn’t submitted annual reports of relevant state enterprises has gone awry.Addressing Parliament, on October 20, Premier Gunawardena requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena either to issue instructions or directive or to summon heads of state enterprises who had neglected their responsibilities.

PM Gunawardena, who is also the leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), wanted the Speaker to call them before President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Finance Minister.Responding to The Island queries, sources said Parliament had not summoned that meeting until declaration of holidays at the end of this year. Parliament is scheduled to meet again on January 05.

Alleging that scores of state enterprises hadn’t submitted annual reports, over the past several years, Premier Gunawardena said that the Parliament could earn the respect of the public by demanding explanations.The Premier emphasized the responsibility on the part of Parliament to exercise its constitutional rights, pertaining to public finance, as both the government and the Opposition repeatedly stressed that.

Premier Gunawardena is on record as having told Speaker Abeywardena that the failure on the part of the state enterprises to submit their annual reports, over a period of time, hadn’t been mentioned in the report submitted by the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA).

Pointing out that successive governments were responsible for the deterioration of state sector enterprises, Premier Gunawardena said that Secretaries to the relevant ministries functioned as Chief Accountants. Therefore, Secretaries to the relevant ministries couldn’t have turned a blind eye to what was going on, the Premier said.

Referring to COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), COPA (Committee on Public Accounts) and COPF (Committee on Public Finance), Premier Gunawardena said regardless of who chaired those watchdog committees, the Speaker had the right to issue directives to them.

Top Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) spokesperson Mujibur Rahuman, MP said that he was not surprised at all by the Prime Minister’s predicament. The Colombo District lawmaker pointed out that the Prime Minister functioned as leader of the government parliamentary group. “President Ranil Wickremesinghe, too, addressed Parliament quite often. But, the Speaker has simply ignored timely suggestions by the Premier,” MP Rahuman said.

Acknowledging that inordinate delay in sending reports to Parliament had been a long standing problem, MP Rahuman said that in spite of the developing financial-political-social crisis the government was yet to streamline the revenue collection process. The restoration of financial transparency, in public sector enterprises, was a crucial part of the overall project to improve discipline, the MP said. However, the government seemed to be unable to cope up with the situation, the former UNP MP added.

According to him, the reports issued by the Auditor General, and examinations conducted jointly by parliamentary watchdog committees, and the AG, over the years, revealed a pathetic picture of public finance. Unfortunately, successive governments failed to take remedial measures, much to the disappointment of the public struggling to make ends meet, lawmaker Rahuman said.

Responding to another query, MP Rahuman said that top officials, particularly Secretaries to Ministries, who functioned as Chief Accounting Officers of ministries, should be held accountable for the deterioration of the public sector.