Courtesy Lanka-e-News

(Lanka-e-News- 30.Nov.2015, 6.45PM) President Maithripala Sirisena has once again appointed a most unsuitable  individual to a most  high ranking post .The most perplexing and  reprehensible part of this deplorable appointment is , it has been approved by the constitutional council too.  This post of   Auditor General is responsible only to the parliament and a position most essential for good governance.

http://www.lankaenews.com/news/952/en

When this  post fell vacant it was the next most senior officer of the department  W.V. C. Wickremeratne who was acting for him. He was carrying on  duties as acting Auditor General for over a year , and he made his contribution  when   the new audit Act  was being formulated by the government of good governance.

Yet , Maithripala Sirisena proposed to the constitutional council (CC) , a favorite of his  -Gamini Wijesinghe , a villager from his native place who earlier held a high rank in the Inland revenue department . As the CC  did not wish to enter into a conflict with the president , it  gave the approval. Accordingly , Gamini Wijesinghe took up the appointment recently.

In any event , this  appointment entails serious and grave issues and is  full of portents  for , each time an Auditor General was appointed to the Auditor General’s department which has over a two hundred years old  history, it was the most senior officer of the department who was selected  . Never was an individual brought in from the backwoods or backyard of anyone to this post.. Neither was he brought down from the parachute , and groomed for that post.

It has come to light that Gamini Wijesinghe appointed by Maithripala Sirisena , has never worked in the Auditor General’s department . He has been having foreign business  deals , and is a shareholder in many large scale   business enterprises within the country . He is therefore not independent enough to hold that post.

The president who opposed the appointment of Arjun Mahendran to the post of governor of the  Central bank , must therefore , truly speaking oppose manifold more against this appointment – bringing in an individual who is totally alien to the environment  of the Audit department and whose appointment can lead to conflict of interests to the detriment of his official duties.

This action holds grave portents and militates against the creation of a country of good governance in the future. In the circumstances , all 110 civil and professional organizations that signed the pact to make this government emerge victorious must launch  a fierce campaign to halt this  move