Four newly appointed members of the Audit Service Commission took the oath of secrecy before Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne in Parliament on Monday.
The new members are former Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe, former Deputy Auditor General G. Thevagnanan, retired Court of Appeal Judge Nihal Sunil Rajapaksa and retired public officer Ratna Deshapriya.
Under Section 9 of the National Audit Act No. 19 of 2018, members are required to pledge not to disclose audit-related information to any party in the government or private sector, nor to engage in discussions or make statements except when directed by a court or Parliament, or as specifically provided under written law.
The ceremony was attended by Audit Service Commission Chairman and Auditor General Samudika Jayaratna, Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera, Assistant Secretary General Hansa Abeyratne, and Director of Legislative Services M. Jayalath Perera, along with several other officials.
The Commission supervises the audit of all state institutions and works alongside the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) in the parliamentary accountability framework. Wijesinghe — a long-standing public-sector accountability figure — re-enters the audit oversight system at a moment when the Treasury cyber theft case and several CIABOC-tracked corruption probes have placed financial governance in heightened parliamentary focus.
Sources: Newswire.
