SJB MP warns Budget Chief may end up behind bars
Matale District lawmaker Rohini Kaviratne (SJB) has questioned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s proposal to utilise the Consolidated Fund to pay a section of the estate workers’ salary increase, beginning January next year.
President Dissanayake, who also holds the Finance portfolio, on 07 November announced that the daily wage of estate workers would be increased to Rs. 1,750 from Rs. 1,350 under the proposed new scheme. President Dissanayake proposed that estate owners contribute Rs. 200 while the Treasury granted an additional Rs. 200 as a daily attendance incentive.
Declaring that the SJB believed that the daily wage of estate workers should be Rs 2,000, the former UNPer emphasised that the government couldn’t, under any circum stances, grant privileged status to those working for big estates.
According to her, the President’s proposal was contrary to the Public Financial Management Act, No. 44 of 2024 (PFMA) that became operational on 09 August, 2024. Introduced in the wake of Aragalaya and declaration of bankruptcy, PFMA replaced the previous Fiscal Management (Responsibility) Act, No. 3 of 2003.
Kaviratne said that Finance Secretary, Harshana Sooriyapperuma, who previously served as a National List MP of the NPP, may not have been conversant with that Act, and other related laws, hence the unprecedented proposal.
The SJB MP said that she had raised the issue with the Auditor General, the National Procurement Commission, as well as the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.
The Opposition MP warned that in case the government acted, regardless of the laws of the land, the Director Budget, too ,could end up in prisons like former Immigration and Emigration Chief Harsha Illukpitiya.
By Shamindra Ferdinando