Harsha raises breach of Parliamentary Privilege over COPA-EPF

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent

UNP MP Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday raised the issue of breach of Parliamentary Privilege over the alleged distorted reporting of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) on the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in the media.

Making a special statement in Parliament, the UNP MP said certain newspapers have published stories indicating that the EPF cleared the air with respect to all questions and allegations against its fund management activities.

Particularly with respect to investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange, at the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) on Wednesday.

“The news stories paint a picture that the EPF convinced all members of the COPA that there was absolutely no problem with respect to its investments and the rate of return paid to its members,” de Silva noted, alleging that reports had made a number of derogatory statements about him in particular.  

“This is a breach of my Parliamentary privileges while attending to my official functions as a member of COPA. These stories, planted by the Governor of the Central Bank, who was present at the said COPA examination of the EPF, is wholly untrue and is in total violation of ethics that is expected of such high officials,” UNP MP Dr. de Silva said in his statement in the House amidst jeers from Government benches.

“Given the ethics that we follow as Members of Parliament, I do not wish to detail the events that actually took place in the committee prior to its report being tabled, but in summary what happened was that the COPA met under protest by all Opposition members of the committee being chaired by Sarath Amunugama, Deputy Minister of Finance, given his oversight of the Central Bank.  After heated discussions among members of the ruling party and the Opposition on numerous audit queries, the meeting came to an abrupt end upon being ruled by the Chairman that Parliament staff needed to leave, even though the Parliament was still very much in session. This happened while the Governor of the Central Bank was being questioned on a serious query raised by the Auditor General as to why the EPF had purchased shares of utterly loss making ‘The Finance Company,’” Dr. de Silva added.

The UNP MP also requested the matter to be referred to the Privileges Committee of Parliament.

He also said COPA would re-summon the senior officials of the EPF including the Governor of the Central Bank shortly to answer multiple audit queries with respect to questionable investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange.