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The Sirisena-Rajapaksa Cabinet yesterday approved the proposal by the Finance Ministry to commission the Legal Draftsman to prepare the Vote on Account, top Cabinet sources confirmed.
A surprise attendee was crossover MP Vasantha Senanayake who despite declaring his intention to resign from his position was part of the Cabinet meeting.
The much anticipated Vote on Account, once drafted, will be presented to Cabinet for approval within two weeks, sources said. “The Vote on Account has to be accompanied by a legal framework as well, the Cabinet gave approval for the Ministry to get the Legal Draftsman to draft this framework. What will happen then is, it will be presented again to the Cabinet before it is sent to the Parliament,” a top source told Daily FT.
The document will seek parliamentary approval to utilise money from the Consolidated Fund for three months from January, until a formal Budget is presented.
However, the Vote on Account, once presented in Parliament, is likely to hit resistance, as the UNP maintains that Sirisena-appointed Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has no authority to sign the document, as he is no longer recognised by the House following the No Confidence Motion on 14 November.
Further, another motion is scheduled to be taken up on November 29, which is likely to block finances to the Prime Minister’s office in a token move to exercise control of the country’s finances by the majority party in the country.
Following the Moody’s downgrading of Sri Lanka’s credit rating this week, the Cabinet was briefed on the current economic situation of the country. Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy and National Economic Council Secretary Professor Lalith Samarakoon briefed the Ministers of the Sirisena-Rajapaksa Cabinet, giving assurances that Sri Lanka was on a stable economic footing, with capacity to repay the $1 billion international sovereign bond.
