Annual reports submitted at top speed - DEW

Nadira Gunatilleke

The implementation of the COPE report is purely the responsibility of the Executive. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is implementing it. According to latest reports, annual reports had been submitted up to 2010, Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) General Secretary and Senior Minister of Human Resources D E W Gunasekara said.

He said earlier, some annual reports had not been submitted for 10 years.

“Now around 10 annual reports come before Cabinet every week for approval,” he said.

Minister Gunasekara said all final accounts for 2011 had been completed and this was unprecedented.

“This is the effect of the COPE Report. Heads of departments, ministry Secretaries and the rest are doing their duty because President Rajapaksa tabled the report before Cabinet and instructed officials to supervise it and report to Cabinet. The Cabinet Secretary sent the reports to my ministry. We are monitoring what is not being implemented,” Minister Gunasekara said.

The minister said earlier, President Rajapaksa brought to Cabinets notice, the importance of recommendations made by the Committee on Public Enterprises of Parliament (COPE) and informed ministers to direct the Secretaries to their ministries to take action to implement these recommendations, Minister Gunasekara said.

President Rajapaksa emphasised the need for ministry Secretaries to strictly abide by the guidelines stipulated by the Treasury in dealing with matters pertaining to public enterprises and avoid repetition of irregularities identified by COPE.

“We examined 229 institutions. This is an achievement, because we examined the entire number of institutions this time. Only 110 institutions were examined from 2006 to 2010. This is the first time in history that follow up action has been taken,” Minister Gunasekara said.