The Hon. Sunil Handunnetti — Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I consider it an honour to speak for the Government on the National Audit (Amendment) Bill. When this law first came in 2018, the then Government was a coalition including today’s Opposition parties — SJB and SLPP — with Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and Maithripala Sirisena as President. The debate was on 05 July 2018. The drafting began on 19 February 2015 under “Yahapalanaya,” which promised two main reforms: the National Audit Act and the Right to Information Act. Although the Audit Bill was submitted to Cabinet on 19 February 2015, with a vote set for 19 March 2015, it took three years and three months to pass.

¶ 02 People expected the new Audit Authority to empower the Auditor General to act against the Central Bank bond scam thieves and the electricity mafia. Even today, Hon. Ravi Karunanayake praises these amendments as good. But back then, from that political side, State Minister Niroshan Perera and Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe brought amendments to neuter the law. In Committee, COPE and Cabinet, the push was to bring a lifeless “dummy” to Parliament. We in the Opposition (JVP) submitted 16 amendments; only three were accepted.

¶ 03 For those who wish to check, I table the relevant Hansard of 05 July 2018, including my speech at columns around 1416.

¶ 04 What we could not then achieve in Opposition, we now advance in Government — a victory for fiscal law and discipline. Hon. Ravi said we are doing this because the IMF asked. No — we argued this in 2018; the IMF Governance Diagnostic came in 2023. We did not wait for the IMF to seek fiscal discipline. We took inputs from audit professionals like former Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe and Mr. Mayadunne.

¶ 05 Claims that Ranil Wickremesinghe “saved” Sri Lanka from becoming Nepal are laughable. The World Bank now says Sri Lanka is among the fastest to stabilize — and some try to credit Ranil for everything, ignoring who governed during the collapse. The bond scams happened in 2015 under Ranil’s watch; attempts at fiscal discipline were made into a farce by them. Today, we restore what was undermined.

¶ 06 This is a beginning. The National Audit Commission/Authority had been turned into a husk; we now re-empower audit, uphold the rule of law, and combat corruption. Some are agitated, but we are unperturbed.

¶ 07 Regarding Former Presidents leaving official residences: they were removed by Parliament’s decision due to misuse of public funds — their pensions and security remain. They should feel shame for plundering public wealth.