The National Police Commission (NPC) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara will appear before the Parliamentary Constitutional Council tomorrow, Parliament sources confirmed. The meeting will take place at 2.30 p.m., Deputy Parliamentary Secretary General Neil Iddawela said when contacted by the Sunday Observer.
The Page 01 news item in last week’s Sunday Observer highlighted the tussle between the two, with the Chairman of the NPC, P.H. Manatunge admitting that the Commission was powerless against IGP Jayasundara.
“The NPC cannot compel the Inspector General of Police to implement its recommendations,” he said at the time. With the IGP refusing to implement their recommendations, Manatunga said the NPC cannot take any further action to ensure the implementation of its proposals as it does not have the powers to do so. As the issues spilled out into the open, Chairman of the Constitutional Council Karu Jayasuriya, decided last week to summon the NPC and Jayasundara to resolve various issues that have cropped up between them due to the IGP continuously failing to implement several recommendations made by the NPC.
Among these were issues pertaining to the promotion of Kilinochchi SSP Palitha Siriwardena, promotions of 129 officers subjected to political vicimisation, removal of OIC Narammala from his post, investigations into educational qualifications of DIG Nalaka de Silva and the suspension of the OIC of the Statistics Division.
The 10-member Constitutional Council is tasked with maintaining independent commissions and monitoring its affairs and is also responsible for giving recommendations for high ranking posts in government institutions such as that of the IGP.
According to Police sources, IGP Jayasundara has been blocking several of the recommendations on various grounds. For example, sources say the list containing 129 names of officers who claim to have been subjected to political victimisation by the previous government, includes names of certain police officers known to have had close connections to the earlier regime, creating serious doubts regarding the vetting process used by the NPC to recommend promotions for these officers.