Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana today reprimanded the Editor of a leading English newspaper over a news report published yesterday (Sunday).
The Speaker strongly advised the editor of The Sunday Times newspaper to find out the truth and report news with a greater sense of responsibility and accuracy.
The Speaker drew his concerns over a news report published in The Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday 04th of December 2022 under the heading “Committee rejects move to increase retirement age of Parliament Secretary General” which he said was false.
The Speaker stated that there was no discussion regarding the retirement of the Secretary General of the Parliament in the Parliamentary Staff Advisory Committee meeting chaired by him at the Speaker’s office recently and emphasized that only the retirement age of parliamentary staff members was taken into discussion on that day.
The Speaker also informed that there was no discussion regarding the matters related to the personal staff of the Secretary General Secretary of Parliament as indicated in the said newspaper report.
Leader of the House Susil Premajayantha had told Parliament today that all the details in the newspaper report were false.
Premajayantha said that the discussion was only about the Sravasti building, which is controlled by the Speaker, and in general, as to what level the retirement age of parliamentary employees should be set in consideration of the other public sector employees. He said that not a single word about the Secretary General of the Parliament or his staff was discussed at the said meeting.
Therefore, the Leader of the House requested that the persons responsible for this newspaper report be summoned to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges. (Colombo Gazette)
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