Information Systems and Management Director of Parliament Mahesh Perera said today that a new features will be added to the Parliament official website to enable users to analyze the performances of Parliamentarians.
He said that this initiative was taken under the “open Parliament” concept adopted by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.
As the first step the attendance of MPs on regular Parliament sittings and committees will be accessible to the public via website he said.
“Until now referring old records via the website was done manually. With the new features we are hoping to add shortly, these records can be automatically searched and sorted out using an Application Programming Interface. This type of software is already being used in websites such as ‘Manthri.lk’ which keeps tab on the performances of MPs,” he explained.
However, adressing on the constraints in feeding quantitative data he said the attendance sheets only mean that the MPs are “present” during the sittings, and it does not reflect the level of their active or productive contribution during the debates or committee meetings.
“Making an appearance of five minutes is enough to get the daily payment of Rs 2,500 for attending Parliament sittings. How many hours he spent at the chamber or in how many committees he actively participated does not get counted and this is an issue the public raises,” Perera explained.
“In the future, we will make all information in Parliament available to the public to the maximum degree we can. Transparency is a key pillar in good governance and we will do our best to uphold it,” he said.