Hands off the Auditor General, says Karu

Karu Jayasuriya

• Ex-Speaker and good governance champion urges Govt. to leave Auditor General untouched in 20A
• Says drafters’ goal is to ensure President and PM cannot be audited by AG
• Karu denounces 20A removal of ‘qualified auditor’ in section governing appointment of Auditor Gen.
• Charges abolition of Audit Service Commission will put auditors at mercy of President-run PSC

Former Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya has raised serious doubts about Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assertion that the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution will not erode the powers of the Auditor General.

Issuing a statement as the Chairman of the National Movement for a Just Society, Jayasuriya, who has championed transparent governance during his political career, clarified how the independence of the State auditing apparatus would be eroded by provisions in the 20th Amendment.

“If it is true that the 20th Amendment does not seek to erode the powers of Government auditors, the best recourse would be to prove this by leaving the provisions pertaining to the powers of the Auditor General and his Department untouched,” the former Speaker of Parliament charged.  

Jayasuriya said that the abolition of the Audit Service Commission by the proposed amendment to the Constitution would bring the Auditor General and his department under the purview of the Public Service Commission, which would be a blow to their independence. 

The point of the ASC was to create a separate independent service for auditors, the former Speaker explained. “Under the 20th Amendment the PSC is appointed and removed at the sole discretion of the President. This automatically erodes the independence of the auditors,” Jayasuriya charged.

He also accused the Government of tampering with the constitutional provisions regarding the appointment of the Auditor General. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution proposes the removal of the phrase “qualified auditor” from the stipulations that govern the appointment of Sri Lanka’s Auditor General, Jayasuriya pointed out. “The question arises, why remove this qualifier unless the goal was to appoint persons who do not fit this description to the position of Auditor General,” the former Speaker charged.

He also said that despite the excuses made by Prime Minister Rajapaksa that the offices of the PM and the President could be treated as Government departments and still audited by the AG’s Department, the removal of these two institutions from under the purview of the Auditor General by way of a constitutional amendment makes it clear that the goal of the drafters was to prevent the AG from auditing the institutions.

Jayasuriya added that Rajapaksa’s declaration states that State enterprises removed from the Auditor General’s purview may still be subject to auditing by private firms on the orders of the AG.

“Yet it is obvious that unless a State enterprise is listed under the subjects of the Auditor General in the Constitution, the Auditor General cannot exercise power over these institutions. The removal of State institutions from under the purview of the AG through a constitutional amendment indicates that the goal of the drafters is to erode the AG’s powers over these enterprises. Therefore it is not 50% of State enterprises, as the Prime Minister claims, but 100% that will be removed from the purview of the AG,” the former Speaker asserted.