Reaching the high office of Secretary General of Parliament in 2012, Dhammika Dasanayake began his Parliamentary career as the Assistant Secretary General in 1994 and became the Deputy Secretary General of Parliament in 2003.
Dhammika Dasanayake was educated at the D.S.Senanayake Vidyalaya and Royal College Colombo and completed his LL.B and LL.M from the University of Colombo.
In 1989 he joined the Attorney-General’s Department as a State Counsel and conducted prosecutions on behalf of the State in many High Courts and has also appeared in many Fundamental Rights Petitions and Writ Applications on behalf of the State.
Mr. Dasanayake has attended many Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and SAARC Parliamentary Association Conferences and was the Regional Secretary of the CPA Asia Region from 2010 -2012. He has also participated in many bilateral Parliamentary visits accompanying high level parliamentary delegations. Mr. Dasanayake was also awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship by the Commonwealth Foundation in the year 1999 in the field of Parliamentary Governance. In recognition of his long experience and expertise in the field of parliamentary development Mr.Dasanayake was invited to lead a Parliamentary Expert Panel constituted by the IPU and the UNDP to carry out a ‘Needs Assessment Mission’ to establish the Democratic Parliament of Afghanistan in the year 2004. In the year 2006, Mr.Dasanayake was also invited by the UNDP to provide technical assistance to the Parliament of Lao PDR to strengthen its Committee on Public Petitions and to establish the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Mr. Dasanayake has also been invited on many occasions to conduct training for Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff in Sri Lanka as well as in other countries. He is also an International Parliamentary Expert and Resource Person of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on parliamentary development and capacity building of Members and parliamentary staff.
During the tenure as the Deputy Secretary of Parliament and the Secretary General of Parliament he initiated many activities with the Parliament Development Partners to modernise the Parliament and to infuse new technology in all aspects of parliamentary work. He was also a strong advocate of the concept of open parliament.
Mr. Dhammika Dasanayake retired from the post of Secretary General of Parliament on the 22nd of May, 2023 after serving the institution for 29 years.
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