Dispute over NCPA top post: 'Ousted' head and new administration trade allegations

Controversy surrounds the alleged removal of the Head of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and the elevation of her deputy to sit in that seat. “I was attending an event at the remote Niyagama Primary School in the Galle district on Saturday (April 7) when I was informed by a subordinate through a text message that someone had been appointed to my post,” the NCPA’s former chairperson Marini de Livera told the Sunday Times, pointing out that up to Wednesday she had not received any intimation of her removal.

Ms. de Livera said it caught her by shock as she had been doing extensive work to promote children’s safety in Sri Lanka.

Explaining how she came to be appointed to the post of NCPA chairperson by President Maithripala Sirisena last year, she said that under the National Child Protection Authority Act, No. 50 of 1998, the tenure of the chairperson is three years. Last year in April, when the then holder of the office, Natasha Balendra, resigned, she had served only for two years and as such she (Ms. de Livera) took office for one year. However, with her record of work, she could not understand why she had been removed.

Ms. de Livera alleged that the newly-appointed Chairperson, H.M. Abayarathna who assumed duties on April 9, had already taken certain decisions that seemed contrary to working towards the protection of children’s rights in the country.

According to her, Mr. Abayarathna had allegedly transferred the NCPA’s police officer -- who had investigated a parent’s complaint that her child attending an international school had been subjected to corporal punishment (prohibited in the country) as well as conducted surveillance against babysales at hospitals -- to Jaffna with immediate effect.

“The NCPA is also planning to shut down Sureki Piyasa, set up by me as a shelter for abused children as earlier whenever these children came in to make a complaint to the NCPA on a Friday, they would be sent back to their abusers, as the NCPA had to get a court order to place them in an orphanage run by the Probation and Childcare Department. A lot of people also wanted me out because I was investigating cruelty in these orphanages,” Ms. de Livera alleged.

When contacted by the Sunday Times, the new NCPA Chairperson, Mr. Abayarathna, said he had held the post of NCPA deputy chairman since 2015 up to now.

He said the appointment of the NCPA chairperson is usually valid for three years. Ms. Balendra was appointed as chairperson in 2015 and it is clearly stated in the NCPA Act that if a chairperson decides to resign from his/her post before completing the three-year period of service, a new chairperson is appointed to complete the rest of the period. As such Ms. de Livera was appointed as the chairperson for the balance one year.

Mr. Abayarathna said that before he was appointed as the deputy chairperson of the NCPA, he was a Special Project Director in the Kurunegala district, a post under the Presidential Secretariat.

He said that no decision had been taken on Sureki Piyasa and when asked about the alleged transfer of the police officer, he added that such transfers would be the decision of the Police Department and not his.

Meanwhile, when the Sunday Times contacted Women’s and Child Affairs Minister Chandrani Bandara, she requested that her Coordinating Secretary Ranjith Kusumlal Kulasinghe be contacted as she was at a meeting.

Mr. Kulasinghe said it is the President who appoints the NCPA Chairperson and as far as he knew Sureki Piyasa, the children’s shelter had not been closed.

He added that he had no knowledge about any international school incident.

The NCPA is also planning to shut down Sureki Piyasa, set up by me as a shelter for abused children as earlier whenever these children came in to make a complaint to the NCPA on a Friday, they would be sent back to their abusers, as the NCPA had to get a court order to place them in an orphanage run by the Probation and Childcare Department. A lot of people also wanted me out because I was investigating cruelty in these orphanages,