Powers of COPE to be further expanded, new chairman says

The powers of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) will be further expanded, its chairman Prof, Ranjith Bandara says.

The recommendations of the COPE will be informed to the Attorney General and other relevant parties through a legal framework that will be adopted in the future, he mentioned.

Speaking to the media in Kandy, the chairman pointed out that COPE does not hear every complaint that it receives, adding that the members of the committee take up for discussion the reports submitted by the Auditor General.

The powers of the COPE are now higher than ever and a new law will be passed in the parliament enabling the COPE to directly inform the Attorney General and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, especially certain corruption scams revealed through the media in the recent past, back when Prof. Charitha Herath was the COPE chairman, said the lawmaker.

He further emphasized that the COPE that met last Friday decided to invite Prof. Herath with great respect and ask him to present the facts before the committee about the shortcomings he had pointed out before and also the corruption scams.