COPE & COPA powers to be increased

COLOMBO (News 1st); A proposal to amend the Standing Orders increasing the powers of all Committees including COPE and COPA will be presented soon.

The Leader of the House, Dinesh Gunawardena said a motion to amend the Standing Orders and increase the powers of all Parliament Committees including COPE and COPA will be tabled in Parliament today (20) or next week.

Further, the Leader of the House, Dinesh Gunawardana was said "Government will submit to Parliament today or next week a draft amendment to the Standing Orders in a manner that empowers Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) as well as the other committees. At present, the Committee Chairs do a great service by traditionally submitting a report to Parliament. The powers needed to go beyond that are not enough. As the Leader of the House, I will discuss and hand over the draft to you to obtain those powers to the relevant Committees. We hope that we will be able to move more effective"