Opposition exodus holds no bar on COPE

20 March 2024 06:03 am Views - 1021

The exodus of opposition MPs from the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), a watchdog committee, will have no bearing on the conduct of deliberations since the government’s representation is sufficient enough to maintain the quorum number, a top source said.

Seven opposition MPs who represent the opposition in the COPE which is empowered to examine the financial activities of the statutory boards such as various corporations and bureaus have resigned in protest over the appointment of ruling party MP Rohitha Abeygunawardane as its chairman. They cite concerns in working under a chairman whose name is tainted with allegations of corruption.

However, only three of them had submitted their letters of resignation formally to the parliamentary authorities yesterday.

MPs Eran Wickramaratne, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Professor Charitha Herath, S. M. Marikkar, Gamini Waleboda, Hesha Vithanage, and Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam announced their resignations so far.

The COPE is a body with 31 members. In the current body, there are 19 MPs from the government and 11 from the opposition. However, the quorum requirement is only four members, meaning that even the resignations of all the opposition members will have no bearing on the functions of the COPE.