As Parliament begins new session, uncertainty over committee chiefs

With the prorogation of Parliament at midnight on January 26, a majority of key Parliamentary Committees stand dissolved and will have to be reconstituted once the new session of Parliament begins on Wednesday.

All committees except the Liaison Committee, Committee on High Posts, Select Committees, and Sectoral Oversight Committees are now dissolved.

They included the Committee of Selection, the Committee on Parliamentary Business, the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, the Committee on Public Finance (COPF), the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), and the Committee on Ways and Means.

The appointments of chairpersons for some of these committees will be closely watched. The main question is whether controversial COPE Chairman Prof. Ranjith Bandara will be back in the post. SLPP MP Prof. Bandara’s infamous hand gesture allegedly to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials during a hearing into the SLC stirred up a hornet’s nest. That gesture, together with allegations of undeclared conflicts of interests with SLC dating back years, eventually brought the entire COPE to a standstill, with some Committee members refusing to serve under his chairmanship and calling on him to resign. Prof. Bandara denied the allegations and vowed to resign if they were proven.

The COPF chairmanship, meanwhile, was beset by many political manoeuverings. It was only in June last year that Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Parliamentarian Dr. Harsha De Silva was appointed as Committee Chair after months of controversy with the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) accused of blocking his appointment to the post. It took the personal intervention of President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the end to resolve the deadlock. In a crucial election year, it remains to be seen if the post will again be subject to such controversy.