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

¶ 01 The truth is that Parliament established their misconduct; they must bow to that.

¶ 02 Some complain that our MPs donate part of their salaries to the Party — and call it misappropriation — while they looted party funds and sold memberships. We will do what is right; they need not lecture us.

¶ 03 The public and the international community can see that we are restoring fiscal law and discipline — not waiting for the IMF or World Bank. The key issue then was surcharge. Secretaries feared it because they knew the extent of wrongdoing. Ultimately, fines for offences were watered down from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 5,000 in 2018. We now restore it to Rs. 100,000 and broaden the Auditor General’s scope beyond only Consolidated Fund expenditures to include revenues again — which had been inexplicably excluded in 2018.

¶ 04 Constitutional powers under Article 154 were curtailed then, and post-surcharge, Discipline Committees appointed by Secretaries could reject surcharges. Today, we create a strong Surcharge Review Committee. Importantly, the Act’s scope is widened to cover Ministries, Departments, and all entities for surcharge — not just local authorities and universities as before. If our Government intended to shield wrongdoers, we would not bring this.

¶ 05 Had the 2018 law remained as they made it, major wrongdoers would never have been brought to book — as seen with RDA leadership then.