Seven more MPs quit CoPE

• Parliamentarians S.M. Marikkar, Nalin Bandara, Prof Charitha Herath, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Gamini Waleboda, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam and Hesha Withanage walk the talk against appointment of Rohitha Abeygunawardena as COPE Chairman 

Following Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Eran Wickramaratne’s resignation from the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (CoPE) on Monday over the appointment of Government MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as Chairman of the committee, seven more parliamentarians also resigned from the CoPE yesterday.

Accordingly, MPs S.M. Marikkar, Nalin Bandara, Prof Charitha Herath, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Gamini Waleboda, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, Hesha Withanage tendered their resignations yesterday.

They expressed their inability to function as members of the CoPE under its current Chairman, Rohitha Abeygunawardena.

Jayasekara was the first to announce his decision to step down yesterday citing the inability to work with a Chairman facing numerous allegations.

 “It is unfortunate that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has failed to learn from the ‘Aragalaya’ and respect the people. To instruct State Officials to avoid corruption, the committees in Parliament must also be free of corruption,” he said taking to X (formerly Twitter). 

Announcing his decision earlier in the day on X Herath said he has officially communicated his decision to the Speaker of Parliament. 

Addressing a press conference in parliament, Rasamanickam said he has decided to step down as CoPE is no longer focused on public enterprises but instead is focused on “Pohottuwa Enterprises” with someone as Abeygunawardena serving as the Chairman. 

The mass resignations follow the announcement by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Eran Wickramaratne, who became the first member to declare his decision to step down from the COPE Committee yesterday.

 “CoPE has been established to ensure the observance of financial discipline in Public Corporations and other Semi Governmental bodies in which the Government has a financial stake. By appointing a ruling party member as its Chairman, the committee fails to meet its objectives of keeping a check on the executive arm of the Government. The duty of the committee is to report to Parliament on accounts examined, budgets and estimates, financial procedures, performance and management of Corporations and other Government Business Undertakings. 45 years since its establishment, CoPE has come to be a redundant committee,” he said in a statement.