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DLB decision unchanged - President

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday responding to Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe's letter of May 9, 2003 over her bid to take over the Development Lotteries Board (DLB) said her decision in this regard remains unchanged and valid even if the Gazette notification is unlawfully prevented from being published.

In a letter delivered to the Prime Minister's office, the President states she would not be deterred in the exercise of her Constitutional functions and duties and called for an impartial investigation into the incidents at the Government Press.

She argues in her letter that in the discharge of the President's functions under Article 44(1) of the Constitution determining the number of Cabinet Ministers and the Ministries and the task of subjects and functions to such Ministers, consultation with the Prime Minister is required only where the President considers such consultation to be necessary.

"It is essentially a matter of subjective decision and is exclusively within my discretion". The President in her letter to the Prime Minster concedes that the assignment of the DLB to the Ministry of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology was an oversight. The President in her letter to the premier states: "I regret that I cannot agree with the construction you have placed on Article 44 of the Constitution.

Furthermore, there is no reference to consultation of any kind under Article 44(3), which specifically provides for subsequent changes in the assignment of subjects and functions, which may become necessary in circumstances wholly different from those in which the original assignment was made. "In my view the consultation envisaged in Article 44 provides an opportunity for ascertaining the views of the Prime Minister, when that is considered expedient by the President. It does not signify, by any means, securing the Prime Minister's concurrence in the decision to be taken.

Since, in my opinion, no ground of substance or materiality has been adduced by you, even at this stage, as to why my decision in this matter should be changed, apart from the formalistic or technical objection that there was no prior reference of the matter to you, I do not find your contention to be sustainable.

"The determination of the Supreme Court on the 19th Amendment Bill has confirmed that there can be no diminution of the powers vested by the Constitution in the President, except by appropriate constitutional amendment.

"To my mind the integral connection between the DLB and the President's Fund, having regard to the main function of the DLB, which is to generate funds for the President's Fund and the wider use those funds are put to in several ongoing projects in the areas of health, education and welfare, necessitates the DLB functioning under the purview of the President.

"To my mind, this subject or function should not have been assigned to the Ministry of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology at the inception of the appointment of the Cabinet in December 2001, but should have remained with the President. Also you state that no proposal for amendment of the DLB Act has been accepted by the Cabinet. But you failed to disclose the number of attempts made by Ministers Karunanayake and Moragoda to prevent the DLB Funds, by various devious means, from coming into the President's Fund.

I am surprised that you have forgotten already the several Cabinet Memos presented to the Cabinet by Ministers and attempts made by the aforesaid Ministers to obtain opinions from the Attorney General on how to divert DLB Funds away from the President's Fund. I am now aware that the Attorney General's Department has rendered three opinions on this matter.

All these would establish that numerous attempts have been made by Cabinet Ministers with your knowledge to circumvent the law to deny funds for the extremely useful and constructive projects undertaken in the public interest by the President's Fund. I am sure you would agree that under these circumstances the impending threats to the President's Fund cannot be ignored by me.

"The existing disagreements between the two aforesaid Ministers regarding the control of the funds of the DLB was an added circumstance that I had to take into consideration in making this decision."

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President should have consulted PM - AG 

Attorney General K. C. Kamalasabeyson, PC in his opinion communicated to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has advised that the President should have consulted the Prime Minister when she took over the Development Lotteries Board, the President's house confirmed yesterday. However, Director General of the Presidential Media Unit Janadasa Peiris said the President would not regard the AG's opinion since she had not sought his advice in this regard. "The President did not seek the AG's advice on the matter and it was the Government Printer who did. The AG has however sent his opinion to the President which she did not ask for, without delivering it to the Government Printer who indeed sought it". "So we will not regard an opinion we did not seek," Peiris told the Daily News. He said the President deems the Government Printer has committed a serious breach of responsibility by delaying printing the President's Gazette notification and seeking the AG's advice. "He (The Government Printer) should have gone to the Supreme Court, if he had any doubt about the constitutional position," he said.

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