The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law
Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara raised a procedural and constitutional concern that Sri Lanka has been without an Auditor-General since 6 December, leaving the Audit Service Commission unable to function as required under Article 153A of the Constitution. He said this affects the preparation of National Audit Office estimates, Gazette publication of rules, and the functioning of public finance oversight after the year-end closure of Government accounts. Referring to Standing Order 119(2), he argued that COPE and COPA must be assisted by the Auditor-General personally and that meetings under a Deputy Auditor-General would be improper, requesting the Speaker to examine the matter with the Secretariat.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 As a member of COPE, please let me raise this matter. Mr. Speaker, under Article 153A of the Constitution, the composition of the Audit Service Commission is set out. It states that the Commission shall consist of the Auditor-General, who shall be its Chair, and other members appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.
¶ 02 There are members, but from 06 December until today there has been no Auditor-General. In Sri Lanka’s history this has never happened, Mr. Speaker. As you know, by 31 December all Government accounts must be closed, and from 01 January every institution in this country must function. The Audit Service Commission must also function and carry out its day-to-day duties. But as its chief officer is absent, the Commission is completely inactive.
¶ 03 Firstly, this is a constitutional violation because the Audit Service Commission is not functioning as envisaged by Article 153. Next, what arises from the non-functioning of the Commission?
¶ 04 I draw your attention further to Article 153A(2) where the powers, duties and functions of the Commission are laid down. Under Article 153A(2)(a) it states the preparation of the annual estimates of the National Audit Office. Further, Article 153A(3) requires that the rules made under subsection (2) shall be published in the Gazette. None of these can be operationalized since 01 January. Today is 06 January. So, not just six days, but since 06 December, there has been no Auditor-General for a month.
¶ 05 Under Standing Order 119(2), “shall be examined by the Committee with the assistance of the Auditor-General.” That implies the presence and assistance of the Auditor-General. A Deputy cannot simply send a document and appear before COPA or COPE in lieu of the Auditor-General. I request you to look at this very carefully, Mr. Speaker, and discuss it with our Secretariat. Letters have already gone to COPA and COPE asking them to meet under a Deputy Auditor-General. That cannot be done.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 6 January 2026 ·No. 23111 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/17590
Cite as: The Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 January 2026. No. 23111. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/17590