The main Opposition UNP has stepped up its campaign against rampant corruption in the Rajapaksa regime by proposing Parliamentary Oversight Committees to monitor the functioning of Ministries.
Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that Ministers and their cohorts were having a field day with no one to oversee their performance.
There had to be a broad mechanism to keep a tab on public expenditure and it should include committees appointed by the legislature, he said adding that that system was prevalent in economically advanced countries.
Wickremesinghe noted that corruption was rampant at the highest levels and had eaten into the financial allocations of many ministries.
The rising crime wave was another area that had to be addressed and the law enforcement authorities could no longer turn a blind eye, since it had reached dangerous proportions, the Opposition Leader observed.
He said that killings, rapes and robberies were frequently being reported from various parts of the country, but the bigwigs in the government spoke and acted as if there was nothing to worry about.
Female children and young girls were being raped and killed with impunity but there was no one in authority to take responsibility for the sad state of affairs, Wickremesinghe noted while querying if it was the future that the "Mahinda Chintanaya" had pledged.