Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a hard hitting statement said it was unfortunate that even in the midst of national crisis, the political opposition was capitalizing on the opportunity for political gain by calling for the reconvening of Parliament on the assumption that the President has no legal right to allocate funds after April 30th this year.
“Even in the midst of a crisis and global disaster we see the unpleasant sight of the political opposition in this country vociferously demanding that the dissolved Parliament be reconvened asserting the President has no right to allocate funds without the approval of the old parliament. They have even issued a threat that unless Parliament is reconvened, the President and all of us run the risk of the loss of our civic rights and the confiscation of our property,” Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
The Prime Minister referred to the argument put forward by the opposition as absurd. The opposition alleged that the previous Government had passed a Vote on Account only up to the 30th of April and that after this date, the President has no authority to allocate funds for any purpose.
“This is an absurd argument. Under Article 150(3) of the Constitution, the President has complete authority to allocate funds for any purpose for which funds had not been allocated by Parliament. It goes without saying that if Parliament has already allocated funds for a given purpose, there is no need for the President to intervene in the matter. The Opposition also alleges that the President is not reconvening Parliament with the ulterior motive of misusing the funds coming in from abroad for the anti-Coronavirus campaign. They contend that Parliament should be reconvened to supervise how that money is spent. All funds received by the Government go to the Treasury via the Central Bank system. There are procedures that have to be followed in spending this money. Funds in the Treasury cannot be spent in the manner that Yahapalana ministers spent the money of the Central Cultural Fund,” the Prime Minister asserted.
Prime Minister reiterated in his statement that after the new Parliament convenes, the Opposition will have an opportunity to raise questions about how Government funds were spent between the time of the dissolution of the old Parliament and the convening of the new Parliament.
“Until then they should refrain from misleading the public with blatant lies. At this moment, we should set politics aside and concentrate on controlling the Coronavirus outbreak and restoring normality to the lives of the people,” he said.
The Prime Minister stated that the Opposition’s efforts are aimed at getting the old Parliament reconvened and using their majority in Parliament to block Government finances, thereby sabotaging the anti-Coronavirus campaign in order to bring the Government into disrepute before the election.”