The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Chairman, as we are speaking about Parliament, it is an honour that you are in the Chair on this occasion. This Parliament has traditions and Standing Orders. Likewise, Parliament is an institution subject to the people’s mandate. It is not something extraordinary; it belongs to the people. Therefore, in keeping with our people’s mandate, we have worked to make not only the Government side but the whole Parliament a fair, democratic institution that accords with the will of the people.

¶ 02 Hon. Chairman, in 2023, Rs. 70 million was allocated to the Office of the Leader of the House, and Rs. 71 million was spent. For 2024, Rs. 71 million was estimated. We only completed three months at the end of that year; Rs. 64 million was spent, saving Rs. 7 million. For 2025, Rs. 78 million has been allocated for the Office of the Leader of the House; so far, Rs. 69 million has been spent. Even if another month passes and the expenditure reaches Rs. 71 million, we will still have saved Rs. 8 million. Accordingly, we have reduced expenditure in the Office of the Leader of the House.

¶ 03 Further, as you know, under Government policy, luxury vehicles of state institutions were sold. Two vehicles belonging to the Office of the Leader of the House were included; one, as I recall, was a Mitsubishi Montero. One had a valuation of Rs. 20 million; we sold it for Rs. 26 million, above the valuation. The other had a valuation of Rs. 50 million; we sold it for Rs. 58 million. Thus, through these transactions, we generated additional revenue for the Government via Parliament.

¶ 04 By 2024, the personal staff of the Office of the Leader of the House and the Office of the Chief Government Whip were fully deployed. Today some come here and scold, but those who said “Parliament must start at 9 a.m. and go on until 6.30 p.m.” are not here now. They spoke in the morning about the hardships of staff; those Members too have left. But this is not the time to speak of that.

¶ 05 From January to date in 2024, Rs. 5.9 million was spent on the personal staff of the Office of the Leader of the House. With salary increases included, we spent Rs. 5.8 million; even after adding that, we have saved about Rs. 150,000. These expenditures come with a significant salary increase. Also, we have not recruited every possible officer to the Office of the Leader of the House; we have saved there too. I thank the Secretary to the Leader of the House and all officers in that staff. Hon. Chairman, I do not know whether you are aware: for the first time, a female officer of the Office of the Leader of the House went on a study visit. I wish to highlight this so the officers in the Secretariat can consider proper proportions. Truthfully, the Secretariat seems to travel abroad quite often; I was surprised.

¶ 06 The Office of the Leader of the House, the Office of the Chief Government Whip and the Office of the Leader of the Opposition carry out a major workload in Parliament. The Office of the Leader of the House discusses with the Executive and prepares the Agenda of Parliament. Highly capable officers work on this. Not for foreign training—even to see another country—none had gone. That is how these offices function. Some people travel abroad frequently; some have gone to certain countries dozens of times. I have not heard of even one effective proposal resulting from those trips. Many of our Members have gone to the IPU multiple times, but we do not know if any productive proposals emerged. I say this because we have strived to improve the quality of Parliament. At our first opportunity, we sent an officer from our office abroad; there are many capable officers, and we will continue this.

¶ 07 Hon. Chairman, I ask you to use your authority and intervene in these matters. We took the people’s mandate not to whitewash politicians’ mistakes on the other side. There is a layer of minor officials everywhere who fall prey to those politicians’ whims and dance to the tune of patronage. We have the power to correct those too. I respectfully ask you to carry out those duties protecting parliamentary traditions according to the people’s mandate.

¶ 08 Hon. Chairman, since we came to power, today is the 101st sitting of Parliament. We have passed 22 Bills. We asked 30 Questions from the Prime Minister. Under Standing Order 27(2), the Party Leaders asked 112 Questions; 96 have been answered in this period. During Adjournment, 28 motions from the Government side and 35 from the Opposition have been taken up and discussed. We have held 58 meetings of 24 Advisory Committees. Some Advisory Committees did not exist in the previous Parliament. The four Subcommittees of Advisory Committees have held 33 meetings. Consider how much the officers—especially second- and third-tier officers—work.

¶ 09 There are seven Sectoral Oversight Committees with 55 meetings. The Committee on Public Accounts has held 15 meetings and presented three Reports; the Committee on Public Enterprises likewise. These two committees are very difficult. The Committee on Parliamentary Business, where you, I, our Minister Nalin Jayatissa and the Leader of the Opposition sit, has met 25 times. Meeting 25 times shows we discuss and decide democratically. The Committee on Public Petitions works even until 7.30 p.m.; I have seen it. As I know, they are trying to split into three sub-units to answer people’s issues; 179 petitions have been examined. The High Posts Committee has met 13 times. The Committee on Public Finance chaired by Hon. Harsha de Silva has done a vast amount of work; it has met 43 times. The Committee of Selection met 11 times. The Committee on Ethics and Privileges, 12 times; the Committee on Standing Orders, 9 times; the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus, 11 times; the Youth Parliament Caucus, 4 times; the Parliamentary Caucus for Persons with Disabilities, 7 times; under your leadership, the newly formed Parliamentary Caucus on Arts and Culture, 3 times; the Sri Lanka Climate Parliament Caucus, 2 times; and the Constitutional Affairs Committee, 2 times.

¶ 10 Hon. Chairman, regarding time management in Parliament, after you, that responsibility is vested in me as Leader of the House. You are the prime mover of everything, but since we must prioritize Government business, responsibility for smoothly conducting the House comes to me. We prepared a schedule and checked how well we manage time. There were two or three occasions where we could not. Whenever that happened, two or three Members from the Opposition caused deliberate disruption. Therefore, after the Budget Debate, in the new year, we ask you to act properly and lawfully against Members who, breaking traditions, ethics and Standing Orders, use unruly behaviour as a weapon. You must protect parliamentary traditions and also our rights.

¶ 11 I spoke about the Office of the Leader of the House. Hon. Chairman, as Speaker, you too have saved substantial expenditure and set a great example. The office of Speaker is very important. We know there have been extremely corrupt Speakers who wasted money, engaged in nepotism and behaved very poorly. But you have been personally insulted publicly unlike any Speaker before. We are pleased that you ignore such insults and conduct the House properly. You have saved substantial funds for Parliament. Yet we see you and the Government not receiving the full cooperation needed for your efforts. Sometimes unnecessary, false arguments are brought to block good initiatives. We know this.

¶ 12 Hon. Chairman, throughout this debate we saw the Opposition speak about promotions, qualifications and salaries of the parliamentary staff, and about the Committee appointed on those matters—