Heads of Expenditure of 26 ministries:

Minister Nimal Siripala to lead PSC

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Leader of the House and Irrigation and Water Management Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva was nominated yesterday to lead the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to discuss the Heads of Expenditure of 26 ministries due to the lack of sufficient time to discuss each of these ministries separately.

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa nominated Minister De Silva as Chairman and 20 other Government and Opposition MPs as members to the committee. The motion on the appointment of the Committee stated that only 16 days have been allocated to the Committee stage of Budget 2014 and each ministry is given approximately two hours. Hence the committee would discuss 26 ministries and its report will be presented to the House. It will be debated for two days in the Parliament.

The ministries referred to the Select Committee include the Secretariat of 10 senior ministers, the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Social Services, Ministry of Public Relations and Public Affairs, Ministry of National Heritage, Ministry of Culture and the Arts, Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration, Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Ministry of Resettlement, Ministry of Disaster Management, Ministry of Botanical Gardens and Public Recreation, Ministry of Wildlife Resources Conservation, Ministry of Productivity Promotion, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Ministry of Lands and Land Development.

The other Ministries to be discussed by the Committee are the Ministry of Minor Export Crop Promotion, Ministry of Coconut Development and Janatha Estates Development, Ministry of Sugar Industry Development, Ministry of Postal Services, Ministry of Private Transport Services, Ministry of Public Management Reforms, Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations, Ministry of State Resources and Enterprise Development, Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development, Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.