10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

Jathika Jana balawegaya· National List· 3 February 2026 ·Debate: Debate: Regulations under the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act

Parliamentary Procedure
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Hon. Bimal Rathnayake explained that, following Cabinet decisions under the new Government on benefits and powers for ministerial officials, the Staff Advisory Committee aligned parliamentary secretariat posts with equivalent ministry posts. He stated that the Secretary-General of Parliament is equivalent to a Ministry Secretary, the Deputy Secretary-General to an Additional Secretary, and Assistant Secretaries-General to Senior Assistant Secretaries, including related entitlements. He added that ongoing inquiries should be allowed to conclude before further action is taken.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, briefly, on issues relating to the Secretariat posts of Parliament. After the new Government led by the President took office, the Cabinet decided on benefits and powers—from fuel allowances onwards—of Ministers, Secretaries to Ministries, and Additional Secretaries. Accordingly, at the Staff Advisory Committee we decided that the benefits and entitlements of the Secretary-General of Parliament are equal to those of a Secretary to a Ministry; that the post of Deputy Secretary-General of Parliament is equivalent to an Additional Secretary; and that the posts of Assistant Secretaries-General are equivalent to Senior Assistant Secretaries.

¶ 02 First, that is the point. Since I am a member of that Committee, I do not intend to debate the rest. In any case, inquiries are ongoing everywhere, and after their outcomes, things should be set right.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Tuesday, 3 February 2026 ·No. 23252 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
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Permalink
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 3 February 2026. No. 23252. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/8767