Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises and Senior Minister D. E. W. Gunasekera told Parliament yesterday that six chairmen of State sector corporations and statutory bodies have been sacked by the President on the basis of findings in the COPE report.
Making the winding up speech in the adjournment debate on the COPE report, the senior minister said that the incumbent COPE had summoned and audited public enterprises which had never been summoned before it. “I tried my level best at perusing all the COPE reports in the recent past. But I could not find one where the recommendations had been implemented. It is a fact.”
Minister Gunasekera continued: “We must change this. I am not here today addressing this House as a senior minister but in my capacity as the Chairman of the COPE. I have done so much that no other previous Chairman could achieve. Soon after presenting this to Parliament we made it public and met the media to answer the questions they had. All the newspapers wrote editorials on the COPE findings. But we maintained the dignity and self respect of all the officials who came before the COPE. We never questioned to disrespect them. All the secretaries of ministries, who are the chief accounting officers, were summoned within four days of the release of the report and their issues addressed. Such thing never happened before,” he said.
“The President took action to remove six chairmen of public enterprises on the basis of our findings. We demand action unlike our predecessors. If the CID and Bribery Commission (CIABOC) fail to take action against those who had been found guilty and make further investigations, we the COPE will summon the heads of the CID and CIABOC and question them,” he said.
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