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by our Parliament correspondents

Minister of Western Region Development M. H. Mohamed drawing the attention of the House to the non-appointment of a person to the Parliament Secretary General's post, yesterday urged the Speaker to probe the possibility of taking action to ratify this.

Raising a point of order, Minister Mohamed said:

"I understand that H.E. the President has recommended to the Constitutional Council that a further acting appointment should be given to the present Deputy Secretary-General pending certain inquiries she wishes to make pursuant to complaints made against her by some Members of Parliament.

"If indeed there were such complaints they should have been duly referred to the Speaker. It is surprising that this fact was brought to the notice of the Speaker only in response to his recommendation to appoint the Deputy Secretary-General to fill the vacancy.

"I must point out that the President has no authority under the Constitution or the Parliamentary Staff Act to hold any such inquiry and that the ultimate disciplinary authority in relation to the staff of Parliament is the Speaker. The Constitutional Council too is not vested with disciplinary authority in this respect.

"As at present, the Parliament functions without a Secretary-General and in addition to being a clear violation of the Constitution, it is bound to hamper the smooth functioning of the office. Therefore, Mr. Speaker I urge you to probe the possibility of taking action to rectify this unsatisfactory situation".

Speaker Joseph Michael Perera said he had sent a letter to the President recommending the name of the present Deputy Secretary General to the post of Secretary General.

"But the President had extended her acting Secretary General post for an unspecified date, that the Constitutional Council had approved the President's decision. Therefore, as the Speaker I have no authority to go against that decision and it is the responsibility of the Parliament to act on this issue."

Mohamed also noted: "We all know that under Article 65 of the Constitution there shall be a Secretary-General, and an acting appointment can be made only when such a Secretary-General is unable to discharge the functions of his office.

"Despite the fact that the post was vacant, the President had given an acting appointment to the Deputy Secretary-General on August 12, 2002 for two weeks which appointment too lapsed on August 26, 2002." 

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