Parliament has taken steps to cut down on its expenditure as far as possible according to a news item quoting the Serjeant-at -Arms. The decision has been taken in the wake of the current economic crisis and also following the Finance Ministry Circular to all Ministries and Government institutions to slash their expenditure.
Accordingly to the Serjeant-at-Arms, the Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dassanayake has issued a Circular to all Departments coming under Parliament to save electricity, water, stationary and fuel and cut down expenses on food, telephone calls and other items. Parliament has come under close public focus in recent times following news reports of the lavish fare served in the Parliament canteen at heavily subsidized rates that are partaken not only by the MPs but also by their family members and other visitors. There had also been heated cross-talk between Members across the aisle over this topic which forced an Opposition MP to declare that henceforth he would not be taking meals served by the Parliament canteen and would instead be bringing his meals from home.
The many privileges and concessions enjoyed by MPs within Parliament had not gone down well with the public which may have added to their calls for all 225 Members to quit. According to a recent news item, Parliament spends Rs. 4.8 million for a single day's sittings and with eight sessions per month, the public has to pocket out Rs. 38.4 million each month for the comfort of our erstwhile people's representatives. Most would consider this an absolute waste and an abomination considering the below-par performance of our Parliamentarians and the shameful conduct of a majority of them.
One would have imagined that given the dire straits the country is placed in today, where the suffering masses are at their wits’ end unable to cope with the runway Cost of Living and chronic shortages of essential items, our MPs would empathize with them and act with more responsibility and circumspection and offer solutions to alleviate these oppressive conditions. Instead what is being witnessed is more of the same, of which the masses have been treated to all this time, with a hapless Speaker suspending sittings time and again to quell the riotous conduct of the Members.
In the opinion of most, Sri Lanka's Parliament has lost its relevance, particularly so with the Presidential system of Governance where in most instances Parliament is reduced to a mere rubber stamp. Efforts are being made to reverse this state of affairs and make Parliament more assertive through the re-introduction of the 19th Amendment (possibly as the 21st Amendment), particularly in the wake of the political crisis brought about by the current economic downturn.
If such an effort fails to come to pass Parliament will continue to remain a mere talk shop and under the circumstances spending all that money to maintain it would certainly be futile. Hence, alternative steps should be considered not just to cut down Parliament’s expenses but to prevent it from being a white elephant that guzzles up public money for little return.
In most countries, Parliament does not meet as often as it does here and in others, there are only a handful of Parliament sessions each year. We too should consider such an option and minimize the number of sittings of the House, thus preventing funds from being squandered away at a time of a grave economic crisis.
There is no gainful purpose served in having long sessions of Parliament given the output of our MPs which is far from productive and of little benefit to the people. Besides, most MPs are caught napping during sessions and what transpires as debates are nothing more than slanging matches and invective. Schoolchildren are often removed from the Public Gallery during bouts of fisticuffs between the honourable Members and in times of rowdy scenes.
There is also chronic absenteeism and vast areas of empty benches during important debates, forcing the Speaker to ring the Quorum Bell umpteen times. Government Ministers are often not present to answer questions raised by the Opposition on behalf of the public. All this does not justify such a colossal expenditure being spent to maintain our Supreme Legislature.
Not just the House of Parliament, the salaries and the multitude of perks and privileges enjoyed by the current crop of legislators too should be drastically slashed and the Members made to periodically declare their assets and sources of wealth. All under-performing Ministers and MPs should be subject to recall as proposed by the present Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) Nimal Punchihewa who also wants the NEC given full powers to unseat MPs who had got themselves elected by fraudulent means on its own accord, through a provision in the proposed new Constitution. The NEC Chief has also sought powers to fill all vacant National List slots two weeks from the election of a new Parliament in the event leaders of political parties fail to do so. All this is proposed with the intention of enhancing the quality of Parliament and justifying the expenditure that goes towards maintaining the country's Supreme Legislature.
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