COPE Lists Over 200 Public Entities
- Report to Parliament on November 15
By Indika Sri Aravinda
The latest report of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has listed over 200 public entities this year for corruption and malpractices.
The figure is the highest listed by COPE and the report will be submitted to parliament on November 15, Chairman of COPE, Senior Minister D.E.W Gunasekera told The Sunday Leader.
He said that the government must act against State officials and institutions mentioned in the report found guilty of corruption and malpractices.
Gunasekera said that the COPE report to be presented to Parliament next month has information on 249 public entities.
He said that while his duty is to only look into the allegations raised against public institutions and officials he cannot take any action against them.
The Committee on Public Enterprises, which consists of 31 Members reflecting the party composition in parliament is established at the beginning of each Parliamentary Session and the Chairman is elected by the Members of the Committee at its first session.
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.
Gunasekera said that once the report is presented to Parliament it is upto the government to take the necessary action against the corrupt officials mentioned in the report.
He also noted that usually when government officials overseas are found to have been involved in corrupt practices they resign from their posts.
However in Sri Lanka that never happens and so the government must take the initiative to remove such officials from authority, Gunasekera said.
