Government violates the constitution amidst the Coronavirus outbreak- Patali Champika

Former Minister Champika Ranawaka highlighted that the circular issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance S.R. Attygalle on the 10th of March 2020 completely violated the constitution. Speaking at the Samagi Jana Balawegaya headquarters, he said, "According to the circular the president has been vested with the power to bear the expenses for the activities of the government for 3 months beginning from the 3rd of March 2020 under Article 150 (3) of the Constitution". "The President can use money from the consolidated fund within the 3 months from the 13th of May to the 13th of August. He does not have the power to withdraw sums from the consolidated fund between March and the end of May", he added. "We request all secretaries of Ministries and heads of state departments to disregard this unconstitutional circular and request the government to withdraw this circular because we do not want to take action against this when the country is facing a crisis", he said. He further outlined that If the president wants he can convene the old Parliament again, to get approval for these monetary matters. "We are ready to support them. It is completely illegal to act in such an unconstitutional manner. He is not planning on spending a small sum of money. He has proposed an expenditure of 1224 billion rupees, which is 1.224 Trillion rupees. This is a serious illegal course of action", he further added.