SLPP, UNP, and ITAK MPs confirm they will vote in favour of the SJB’s no-confidence motion against the energy minister, Kumara Jayakody.
The motion accuses Jayakody of corruption and endangering national energy security. Gayantha Karunatilleka, the opposition whip, described the motion as a test of the NPP’s conscience and its anti-corruption commitments.
The motion lists two main grounds for the opposition’s lack of confidence in the minister. First, negligence — resulting in the purchase of substandard coal for the Norochcholai power plant. The audit office found major lapses in the procurement process, and Parliament’s public enterprise committee is also probing the tender.
Second, corrupt procurement of carpets at a state-owned fertiliser company between 2014 and 2016 when Jayakody was in charge of the company’s procurement. The bribery commission indicted Jayakody on March 27th. He is now on bail.
Public unity, private dissent
Despite calls for his resignation, Jayakody, who isn’t a JVP member, has kept his portfolio. The Daily Mirror reported that the cabinet advised the president to dismiss Jakakody when the bribery commission first took up his case last August.
Ananda Wijepala, the public security minister, rejected this claim. He said that there was no conflict between Jayakody and other ministers, and that Jayakody continues to attend cabinet.
However, an energy ministry source said there was disagreement within the government on the question of Jayakody’s resignation. An NPPer close to the government said some NPP members feel Jayakody should have resigned, and have felt so for some time.
An NPP backbencher felt that Jayakody should have resigned prior to opposition pressure. Though the case against him is now more convincing than it was last year, resigning in the face of a no-confidence motion could make the government appear weak.
Officially, the government maintains that there isn’t any need to remove Jayakody. Nihal Abeysinghe, the NPP’s general secretary, acknowledged that there was a “moral issue” at stake. Yet Abeysinghe and Wijepala said that the government believed in Jayakody’s innocence.
Answering a question from the press a few days before the indictment, Dissanayake said if Jayakody is indicted for misappropriation within his ministerial portfolio, he will not hesitate to fire him the next day.
Constitutional convention
Asanga Welikala, a constitutional law scholar, opined that Jayakody’s failure to resign violates constitutional convention.
