• Proposes setting up of a national council
• The main issues in our country are not confined to the economic sphere 
• The re-introduction of the 19th Amendment is one of these issues
• The second issue is to work towards the abolition of the Executive Presidency

The National Council will comprise of the Speaker, the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and leaders of the major parties. The President’s affairs will be monitored. The President will be held accountable to Parliament.

 Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday assured major constitutional reforms under which a system will be in place to strengthen the legislature and to oversee the affairs of the President. 

 
“There is a system in place to control the Government through the Cabinet, to examine the work of the President, to oversee the work of the political affairs through the National Council and to oversee financial affairs and other matters, the Prime Minister said in a statement.   

Following is the full text of the Prime Ministers address.   The main issues in our country are not limited to the economic sphere. There are also two major issues in the political sphere. The re-introduction of the 19th Amendment is one of these issues. We, as party leaders, are now preparing the 21st Amendment in this regard.   
The second issue is to work towards the abolition of the Executive Presidency. The timing and methodology must be decided by the Party Leaders. 

 
The functioning of the Parliament has been paralyzed due to the weakening of the Parliamentary powers by the 20th Amendment. The Executive has been given more powers. The main allegation today is that the Parliament has not acted to prevent the economic crisis. There is an allegation that even though the ruling party had a majority in Parliament they neglected the work of the Parliament. Everything was systematically controlled by the Cabinet Ministers.  

 We do not always have to look at what happened in the past, but there are examples we can follow.   
Before the independence of Sri Lanka there was a State Council from 1931 to 1947. That State Council functioned following the committee system. Each subject was divided into seven committees. The Chairmen of the Committees became Ministers. The seven Ministers had formed a Cabinet. In addition, there were three officials appointed by the Governor.   

In addition, there was an Accounts Committee to control public money. At that time we had the opportunity to carry out this methodology successfully.   

Now we need to change the structure of Parliament and create a new system by combining the existing system of Parliament or the Westminster system and the system of State Councils. In those cases Parliament can participate in governing the country.   

First of all, the existing laws need to be strengthened in order to give those powers to Parliament in the exercise of monetary powers.   

Following the example of countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and India, we are proposing a stronger and more powerful law   

At present there are three Committees on Government Finance. The three Committees are the Public Finance Committee, the Accounts Committee and the Committee on Public Enterprises. Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena has made several proposals to strengthen the powers of these three Committees.   
In addition, we are bringing recommendations forward. We are working to establish two new Committees on Monetary Affairs.   

We will appoint a Legal and Methodological Committee to look into the matter. Secondly, the main problem we face is the financial condition of the banks and financial institutions. There are a number of issues that have been weakened. Under our Standing Order 111 we can appoint oversight committees. No oversight committees have been appointed before.