The Speaker has informed the Parliament today that if any external person is called for the parliamentary committees, it is mandatory to get his permission.
He has announced that prior written permission should be taken for that.
Also, the Speaker had announced at the beginning of today’s parliamentary session to recall some facts about the role of parliamentary committee chairpersons.
The speaker disclosed that he had been informed on various occasions about the tendency of the committee chairman to overstep his scope of work in the committee.
The Speaker also emphasized that all committee chairpersons are bound by the provisions of the parliamentary standing orders to protect the traditions and investigations that have existed in the parliament for a long time.
He announced here that in addition to the officers of the Parliament, if the Chairman of the Committee wishes to obtain the services of any external person voluntarily or in any other way for the coordination and advisory work of the Committee, he should obtain the prior written permission of the Speaker.
Also, the speaker here asked the government officials of various ministries, departments, devolved or non-constitutional institutions to carry out the work of the committee in a manner that would not cause them any inconvenience and to issue press releases only on matters approved by the committee in a balanced manner without harming the honor and pride of the Parliament.
Also, the Speaker informed that when dealing with letters, official letterhead with the name of the relevant committee should only be used to communicate matters approved by the relevant committee.
The Speaker also emphasized that the official letterhead of the Committee should not be used for personal or political matters.
When the Sri Lanka Cricket Board was called to the COPE Committee recently, the opposition leader had questioned the fact that the son of the COPE Chairman Mr. Ranjith Bandara had been sitting in the committee room.
