Parliament loosens its grip over the control of public finance
Mrs Priyanee Wijesekera, in Columbo.
The former Secretary-General of the Sri Lankan Parliament outlines how the enactment of new legislation, in her view, has moved the traditional control of the purse-strings away from Parliament.
Mrs Wijesekera is a retired Secretary-General of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Parliaments are universally accepted as one of the key institutions (if not the main one) able and entrusted with the duty of holding govern- ments to account.At their many con- ferences and seminars across the world the CPA, IPU and other International Parliamentary Associations as well as regional forums continue in their efforts to inculcate the need to demand accountability for spending public funds.They have also produced innu- merable books, pamphlets and other documents towards this end. In Sri Lanka, sentiment on public accountability also runs high. However, in enacting the Appropriation Bills from 2003 to 2007, the Parliament of Sri Lanka appears to have moved away from its role as the guardian of Public finance almost unnoticed. The right to control taxation and
government spending was something Parliaments had jealously guarded over centuries.This right is also
embodied in our constitution in Article 150 which states:
1. Save as otherwise expressly provided in paragraphs 3 and 4 of this Article, no sum shall be withdrawn from the
services for the financial year during which the withdrawal is to take place or is otherwise lawfully changed or the consolidated fund.
Government property as well as funds acquired by taxation and other means are deemed to belong to the people and therefore come under the scrutiny of Parliament, which is an assembly comprising the peoples’ rep- resentatives. Under Article 149 of the constitution all government revenue is paid to a consolidated fund and it is the Parliament that finally decides how money is collected for the fund (by taxes etc) and how it is to be dis- bursed (estimates). The annual estimates which are
consolidated fund except under the authority of a warrant under the hand of the Minister in change of the subject of finance.
2. No such warrant shall be issued unless the sum has by resolution of Parliament or by any law be granted for specified public
presented to Parliament with the Appropriation Bill are categorized in detail under Heads, Programmes, Projects and Objects, so that there is a description of how much is to be spent and on what. One of the basic precepts of public finance is that a sum appropriated to a particular service should not be spent on another.The transfer of funds from one head to another can only be