Opposition to head parliamentary watchdog committees
By Saman Indrajith
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena told Parliament, on Friday, that top posts of three parliamentary watchdog committees, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), and Committee on Public Finance (COPF), would go to the Opposition. He said so in response to a question raised by Chief Opposition Whip, Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella. Parliamentary committees are being reconstituted following the opening of the third session of the ninth Parliament.
Kiriella said that party leaders, at a meeting held three weeks back, had decided that the heads of the COPE, the COPA and the COPF should be Opposition MPs, and demanded to know from the Speaker when that would be done.The Speaker said that decision would be implemented.