2024-03-20
News Categories : Committee News
Member of Parliament Hon. Rohitha Abeygunawardana, stated that although it is possible to summon 363 institutions before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), 102 institutions have not been summoned before the Committee so far. This was stated when the Committee on Public Enterprises met recently (Mar. 19) under his Chairmanship. Before the commencement of the Committee, the Chair made a full presentation on the objectives of COPE and the functioning of the Committee so far. It is reported to be the first time in the history COPE that a new Chai has made such a clarification.
The State Plantation Corporation of Sri Lanka was summoned before COPE today to examine the Auditor General's reports and current performance for the years 2017 and 2018. Accordingly, the Auditor General pointed out that in the entirety of 27 years, the Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation has made a profit in only 4 years. It was also disclosed that 7 of the 10 tea factories owned by the Plantation Corporation, which is continuously losing money, are inactive. However, the audit pointed out that the corporation had not taken any action to resume production or lease out the inactive tea factories.
Officials of Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation informed to the Committee that the primary reason for the corporation's continuous losses was lack of capital. The officials further commented that due to the lack of capital, the failure to use fertilizers and related herbicides at the right time was also a reason for the losses. However, the Committee pointed out to the officials concerned that the main reason for the losses of the Corporation was not the lack of capital itself. Accordingly, the Committee presented data on the very high employee cost of the Plantation Corporation and it was disclosed that the employee cost of the Sri Lanka Plantation Corporation is about 75%.
Furthermore, there was a discussion at length in the Committee regarding the acquisition of the land owned by the Plantation Corporation given on lease basis by third parties. Accordingly, the Chair instructed the officials to promptly implement the necessary legal procedures to recover the illegally acquired lands.
The Chair further instructed officials to immediately re-survey the land available to the Sri Lanka Plantation Corporation and submit a detailed report on which lands have been given by the Plantation Corporation on lease basis, who are the institutions and individuals who have given the land, the money contracted for them and the income obtained from the land given on lease basis.
Furthermore, it was disclosed that the Plantation Corporation has to pay 1.5 billion in various payments including Employee Provident Fund and Employee Trust Fund for the employees of the company. Accordingly, the Chair also instructed the officials to intervene immediately and prepare a program to complete the relevant payments within the next two months.
Furthermore, a comprehensive plan for the period 2024-2028 of the plantation corporation was presented to the council. However, the Committee questioned the officials regarding the lack of inclusion in the relevant business plan of the proposals prepared for the institution to gain profit. Accordingly, the Chair who expressed his regret that other parties have created the compact plan without knowing the needs of his company, gave instructions to prepare a compact plan within 02 months by including the future program of the company to be implemented immediately.
Furthermore, the Committee expressed its displeasure about the absence of a proper data system regarding the vehicles of the Plantation Corporation, and the Chair instructed the officials to send a detailed report to the Committee immediately.
State Ministers Hon. Janaka Wakkumbura, Hon. Indika Anuruddha, Members of Parliament Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara, Hon. Shantha Bandara, Hon. Sanjeeva Edirimanna, Hon. Hesha Withanage, Hon. (Prof.) Ranjith Bandara, Hon. Jagath Kumara Sumithraarachchi, Hon. Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, Hon. (Major) Sudarshana Denipitiya, Hon. Upul Mahendra Rajapaksha, Auditor General Mr. W.P.C. Wickramaratne and other officials were present at the Committee meeting held.
2024-09-20
The Committee on High Posts which met recently (Sep. 18) in Parliament has given its approval for the nomination of the Ambassador of Sri Lanka designated to the State of Kuwait.Accordingly, the Committee on High Posts considered the nomination of Mr. L.P. Ratnayake as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the State of Kuwait and has approved same.Hon. Vidura Wickramanayaka, Hon. (Dr.) (Mrs.) Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Hon. Udaya Gammanpila were present at this meeting of the Committee on High Posts Chaired by Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Speaker.
2024-09-09
The report of the Select Committee of Parliament to look into whether the child malnutrition issue in Sri Lanka is aggravating and to identify short term, medium term, and long-term measures to be taken in that regard, as well as to oversee the speedy implementation of the identified measures was presented to Parliament by Member of Parliament, Hon. Rohini Kumari Wijerathna on behalf of the Select Committee Chair Hon. Vadivel Suresh recently (04). The Report presents that child undernutrition can be presented in four forms such as stunting (low length/height for age), wasting (low weight for length/ height or low BMI for age), underweight (low weight for age) and, micro nutrient deficiencies/ insufficiencies - a lack/ inadequacy of important vitamins and minerals. The Report further states that babies born with a birth weight of 2500 grams or less are considered to be low birth weight and according to the National Nutrition and Micronutrient Survey conducted in 2022, the prevalence of low birth weight in a nationally representative sample was 15.9%. The June 2023 Nutrition Month report identified an increase in underweight and stunting among infants and children up to two years of age compared to 2022. The most alarmingly high underweight rate of 24.6% was recorded in Nuwara Eliya district, where one in every four children was identified as moderately or severely underweight, the report said. In June 2023, the proportion of children affected by poverty in Sri Lanka is 10%, according to this report. 1.2% of all children under the age of 5 are affected by severe acute malnutrition and numerically nearly 16,000 children suffer from such acute malnutrition. The Nutrition Month 2023 report revealed a 10.3% increase in stunting among children under the age of five, an increase of 9.2% from the previous year. The report has revealed that the causes of chronic malnutrition, which are short or short in height compared to children of the same age, occur over time. Meanwhile, according to the survey conducted in 2022, a nationally representative sample of children aged 5-18 years found that shortness, overweight and obesity increase with age. The report has shown that lack of food security at the household level has also contributed to malnutrition. Due to the economic crisis in the year 2022, 98% of the entire population has been affected by the increase in food prices, and as a result, 74% of the households could not afford to buy food or daily essentials in the last six months of that year, according to the report. The number of food insecure households increased to 24% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to 17% in March 2023. A third of all families have reduced the frequency of cooking or limited their consumption and a quarter live on food from neighbors. The report provides conclusions and recommendations for improving child nutrition. It emphasized the importance of immediate attention to children before they become chronically malnourished. The report also emphasized the need for adequately skilled field health staff to provide quality Maternal and Child Nutrition (MCN) services for Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs. The report also emphasized that vitamin A supplementation should be considered again before this becomes a problem again, as vitamin A supplementation has been discontinued for school children. The need for urgent action to improve the food security status of families with children under the age of five has also been highlighted. The report also recommends using existing health management information systems to identify focal areas of malnutrition in children and to map risk to address malnutrition in order to identify the most vulnerable families and causal factors. A number of short, medium and long-term recommendations have been presented in this report, including uninterrupted supply of nutritional supplements to pregnant mothers and malnourished children, control of prices of those ingredients to ensure affordable availability of ingredients for a healthy and low-cost diet, the implementation and monitoring of pre-school feeding program, school feeding program and school canteen guidelines to provide quality food.
2024-09-06
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Food Security & Agriculture went on an observation visit in Gampaha (Minuwangoda) area on August 28 for the survey of paddy harvest obtained through the use of environmentally friendly fertilizer. The main objective of the Committee was to successfully introduce environmentally friendly fertilizer to the Sri Lankan agriculture and it was decided in this Committee that the fertilizer products should be tested in the main paddy growing area. Under the guidance of the Committee Chair Hon. D. Weerasingha, the eco-friendly fertilizer usage program was implemented in 7 provinces and Mahaweli Zones B, C and H in the 2024 yala season, post observing the successful results of paddy demonstrations in Welikanda and Dehiattakandiya areas using environmentally friendly fertilizers in the 2023/2024 Maha season. This observation tour took place in accordance to the said. Officials of the Sectoral Oversight Committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Development, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Agricultural Research Policy Council, National Fertilizer Secretariat, Department of Census and Statistics and Western Provincial Department of Agriculture were present during this program. Under the above program, the program related to the Western Province was conducted under the supervision of the Western Province Agriculture Department and the harvest survey was conducted by the Census and Statistics Department. The overall coordination of the program was done by the National Institute of Fundamental Studies.
2024-08-22
The research report on the gender pay gap was presented to Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, the Speaker of Parliament and Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the Opposition recently (Aug. 08) by Hon. (Dr.) (Mrs.) Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Chair of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus. This report was prepared by a group of researchers including the Women and Media Collective under the leadership of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus. Chair of the Committee on Public Finance, Hon. (Dr.) Harsha de Silva, Member of Parliament, Co-Deputy Chair of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus, Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna, Hon. Eran Wickramaratne Member of Parliament were also present at this event. Addressing the gathering, Hon. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, the Speaker stated that it is important to formulate legislation and new policies to change these wage inequalities. Furthermore, the Hon. Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the Opposition stated that provisions should be included in the constitution so that these rights can be upheld. The Caucus Chair pointed out that in order to eliminate this gender wage disparity, there should also be a change in the attitudes among the people in the society. Mrs. Kushani Rohanadeera, Secretary General of the Parliament and the Secretary of the Women Parliamentarians' Caucus, thanked everyone who contributed towards the success of this work. Commenting on this research report, the research team led by Dr Sepali Kottegoda, Executive Director of the Women and Media Collective stated that the gender pay gap in the Sri Lankan labor market is primarily and closely linked to unpaid care services. The researchers highlighted that women are under-represented in high-wage industries, concentrated in low-paid service roles, and a significant proportion of women are engaged in part-time work and unpaid domestic care services. Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment, Women and Media Collective, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), National Democratic Institute (NDI) other invitees were present at this event.
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