Parliamentary Consultative Committee meetings to recommence

Wednesday, 13 December 2017 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

 

  • Ministers complain that Sectoral Oversight Committees do not deliver desired results 

The Cabinet yesterday decided to recommence Parliamentary Consultative Committee meetings following requests by ministers, a Senior Minister revealed. 

The matter was raised when the report of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy was erroneously sent to Cabinet, Cabinet Co-spokesperson Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara told the Daily FT. The report, produced by the committee comprising a selection of parliamentarians sans a subject minister, is presented to Parliament for debate.

“We highlighted that the committees are not as effective as consultative committees where MPs were able to discuss issues relevant to each ministry and find solutions,” Jayasekara said. 

“There the subject minister and all the officials were there to discuss the issues. This is not possible now. No issues have got resolved and there is hardly anything achieved through the current process.”

After discussions, a request by Jayasekara and several other ministers to recommence the consultative committee meetings was viewed favourably by President Maithripala Sirisena. 

Accordingly, the Parliamentary Consultative Committees will sit for meetings every two months, Jayasekara said. “Initially it was recommended to have meetings every three months. But after discussion we decided it would be better to have the meetings more regularly,” he asserted. 

 

 

COMMENTS