By M D P DISSANAYAKE,  ( FCMA, CPA, CGMA, PhD)

The 43 page draft amendment No.20 for the constitution is now in the public domain.  Most of us thought the amendment might be couple of pages, as there was not enough time from the date of general election to draft an elaborate amendment.

Surprisingly, The Gota, Mahinda, Basil chemistry had produced a masterpiece draft legislation, which goes beyond some of the basics of 1978 original constitution.  It was not possible to compile a draft like this in a couple of days.  Therefore, we can safely conclude by looking at the depth of the draft, that it had been prepared  by constitutional experts since President Gotabaya assumed office. We all thought Prof. G L Pieris would be given the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs or Justice, but it did not happen.  As we know now, G L Pieris has already done the job of drafting 20^th  amendment with others well before the formation of the government.

Not only Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, many others, including some writers of the  international and local media, including Lankaweb  advocated the end of Executive Presidency.  Months before the Presidential Election, many argued that the EP was a useless role, there is hardly anything in it to contribute to the nation.  But the national had the answers to the critics.

With the passage of 20A, Executive Presidency will be stronger than ever before.  Importantly, non-performing Cabinet and State Ministers will be at the receiving end of marching orders if they fail to achieve targets of performances.

Similarly, there is scope within 20A, for the President to appoint Deputy Ministers, an enlarged version of State Ministers.  The President will also be able to appoint any MP who is not a member of the Cabinet of Ministers to a ministerial portfolio.

45. (1) The President may, from time to time, in consultation with the Prime Minister where he considers such consultation to be necessary – (a) appoint from among Members of Parliament, Ministers who shall not be Members of the Cabinet of Ministers;”

This means, the President will be able to appoint any MP ( an olive branch to the Opposition MPs ) as a Minister.

46. (1) The President may, from time to time, in consultation with the Prime Minister, where he considers such consultation to be necessary, appoint from among the Members of Parliament, Deputy Ministers to assist the Ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers in the performance of their duties.”

The President will also be able to widen the scope of Deputy Ministers  with the amendment.

The 20 amendment, is just not a draft piece of legislation to do away with the 19 amendment.   It is a road-map for the new constitution.

A key feature of the 20A is the clear delegation of powers to the Cabinet of Ministers, Deputy Ministers, with a system of check and balances to evaluate the performance in determining the measurement of outputs as a return on investment.

The days ministers enjoyed the perks and made no contribution to the nation will be buried.  Each Minister will have to face the President in the performance evaluation meetings, where actual results will be compared with the planned outcomes.

The Ministers will not be able to get away with excuses.  The President himself will visit the Project Sites before evaluation meetings, meet the villagers, obtain their comments.  So, it is possible some ministers may even resign voluntarily, as they cannot bear the Heat in the Kitchen.   Availability of Basil Rajapakse to assist the President and the PM directly will further strengthen the team work. These are the expectations of the Nation.