'Allegations against Reginald Cooray baseless'
 

by Sandasen Marasinghe

Western Provincial Council Chief Secretary R. B. Wanninayake said yesterday that the allegations levelled against Western Province Chief Minister Reginald Cooray that he had acted against Regulations to secure political advantage were false.

He made these observations giving evidence before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on matters on No Confidence Motion against WPC Chief Minister Reginald Cooray.

The Presidential Commission comprised Court of Appeal Justice Dr. Chandradasa Nanayakkara (President) and A. S. Gunawardana (Commissioner), Chairman of Finance Commission.

Examined by Senior State Counsel Menaka Wijesundara, R. B. Wanninayake said that he was not aware of any instances where Chief Minister Cooray had acted against the regulations as it was alleged in the first charge of the no confidence motion.

Wanninayake also denied the allegation that Chief Minister Cooray removed certain employees from the Council and that those capacities were still vacant. There were many vacancies in the Western Provincial Council and the Council can do nothing with them since recruitments are made by the Government itself and the Chief Minister has no influence over them.

R. B. Wanninayake said that he was appointed as the Western Provincial Council Chief Secretary by the President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and has been working for nearly one and half years in that capacity. Prior to that he had been working as a Government Agent.

When queried by the Senior State Counsel Menaka Wijesundara, he said that the only incident where he found Cooray's involvement in replacing A. H. Gamage with H. Sumanapala for the post of secretary to the Chief Minister. It was done in line with the powers vested in him to replace a secretary if the secratary and the Minister did not agree with each other which affect the smooth function of the Council.

He also said that allegation that the CM had not acted according to the Committe recommendations set up on February 28, 2003 allegedly spending Rs 200,000 were false since a sub committee installed after the No Confidence Motion revealed that more than eighty percent of the recommendations had been fulfilled. Most of the other recommendations could not be fulfilled since the employees concerned had retired. "At the same time", he said, "the government had spent only Rs 1,16,129.77 on the committee".

The inquiry was put off for August 31.