The March 12th Movement will launch its future action plan and the new campaign to promote clean politics on March 12 at the BMICH, Transparency International Sri Lanka Senior Manager Shan Wijethunga said.
Addressing the media at a briefing yesterday he said that new young members of parliament, irrespective of which party they are from, will sign for five criterion on March 12 under the theme: ‘I am for clean politics’, pledging to refrain from corruption and malpractice, declare assets at the right time, in the correct manner, be willing to declare assets at the request of the public at any time revealing the amounts of funds received for election campaigns and expenditure, use polite language inside and outside of the Parliament etc.
According to Wijethunga, a website for the new young MPs will be launched on the same day. They will be given opportunities through mass media to promote themselves according to the principles they agreed on. It was revealed that some MPs, in the last election, spent as much as Rs. 80 million.
In addition, he said, Sri Lanka should produce a National Action Plan by June 30 this year in connection with signing an Open Government Participation Declaration. Sri Lanka was the 61st country to sign it. The Right To Information Bill to be presented to Parliament today is expected to be passed before March 12.
The people will be educated on how to make use of this Bill in order to obtain information on assets of MPs, he said, adding that the amendments to the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act handed over to the President on December 9th is now it is being amended by the Bribery and Corruption Commission. Soon the Bill will come to the Parliament through the Attorney General’s Department, he said.