Mangala tirade on Matara attack almost derails COPE Report debate

A Pandora’s Box opens on rampant waste, corruption and mismanagement within State sector sans punitive follow-up

Atwo-day Parliamentary debate on the report of the Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) which took place on Thursday and Friday became another routine debate with no concrete proposals for punitive action against those faulted with wrongdoing within the State sector.

While the COPE debate continued much along partisan lines, the infighting within the United National Party (UNP) which exploded into a street fight in Matara a few days earlier, also took centre stage, with the Party’s Matara District MP Mangala Samaraweera going completely off track during the debate, to give a detailed report of what happened on the day of the incident. This in turn left room for several Government speakers to pounce on the issue, sidelining the COPE debate.

Mr. Samaraweera began with an attack on State media institutions which, he rightly said were funded by the State and must be responsible to the public. He accused State media institutions of distorting the facts regarding the Matara incident, but went onto lash out at two private media institutions as well as other UNP detractors, accusing them of forgetting all accepted ethics and norms, and attacking the Party as well as its leadership. “Publicity has been given saying Mangala Samaraweera’s thugs were the ones who caused the problems at Matara. All 24 who are in remand custody are my close political confidants. They are neither underworld figures nor thugs. They have been framed and taken into custody,” the MP said.

The lengthy explanation by the UNP MP did not go down well with Government MPs and some UNP MPs as well. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera who followed Mr. Samaraweeera, said that it was thanks to the timely intervention of the Government that the situation was brought under control. “Now Mr Samaraweera is trying to accuse the Government of causing problems, but we are the ones who saved them,” he said. and mismanagement within these institutions. He referred to SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Air, two of the biggest lossmaking State-run institutions.

“If COPE is to become meaningful, there has to be legislative reforms. We must impose criminal sanctions on those who cheat and rob the State. We must implement the pending Audit Act. We have to hold ministers’ secretaries, who are the chief financial officers, responsible for the finances and governance of these institutions, and also amend Parliament Standing Orders for better control of State finances,” he said.

JVP Colombo District MP Sunil Handunnetti voiced his frustration over limiting COPE’s mandate to handing over of the Report to the Speaker and to holding a debate in Parliament. “This debate is like conducting the final rites of the COPE report. This is the funeral oration we are conducting in the form of a debate, before and after this there will be no action on the Report,” he said.

The JVP MP said that unless there is executive action, no offenders will be punished and hence, they will continue to act with impunity. “There are officials who come before the Committee and go away complacently, knowing that even if they have violated financial regulations, they will go unpunished,” he said. The JVP MP added that unless action is taken under existing civil or criminal laws, the work of the Committee will not yield any results.

National Languages Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said it is unfortunate that the Opposition has made it an issue of contention between it and the Government. “This is not a partisan issue It is important to both the Government and the Opposition to work together to make public sector institutions more accountable,” he said.

COPE Chairman Senior Minister DEW. Gunasekera said that the Report has been handed over to the President and action would be initiated to take offenders to task. “Even villagers talk about COPE now. I get more than 50 letters a month, with complaints of wrongdoing within State institutions. So the work of COPE has been recognised and become a deterrent against corruption and mismanagement,” he said.