High Post Committee clears eight of President’s head of mission nominees

Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Milinda Moragoda

Palitha Kohona

Moragoda, Kohona among eight whose names cleared by Committee
All except one are political appointees

By Chandani Kirinde

The High Post Committee (HPC) meeting which met yesterday under the Chairmanship of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena approved the names of eight of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s nominees named to head Sri Lanka overseas missions.

The eight include former Minister and businessman Milinda Moragoda as High Commissioner to New Delhi, India and a former Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one-time Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Palitha Kohona as Ambassador to Beijing, China.

The others whose names were cleared by the HPC are former Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha who is to head the mission in Washington DC, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo Kshanika Hirimburegama to France, Vishramal Sanjiv Gunasekera as Ambassador to Tokyo, Japan; former Navy Commander Admiral (Rtd.) Piyal De Silva as Ambassador to Afghanistan, a one-time Cabinet Secretary S. Amarasekera as Ambassador to South Africa and senior journalist C. A. Chandraprema as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Aryasinha is the only career diplomat among the eight new appointees.

The HPC is tasked with examining the suitability of any person nominated for posts of Secretaries to Ministries, Heads of Missions abroad and Chairpersons of selected Corporations etc. and call for public representation after the names of the nominees are forwarded to it.

Nominees are required to submit his/her bio-data together with a Declaration of Assets and Liabilities in a prescribed form for examination by the Committee along with their CV. Examination of nominees by the HPC is more a formality than a thorough examination of the suitability of candidates.

The Committee consists of 14 ruling party members and four from the opposition and is chaired by the Speaker.