SL Government decides to abolish Peace Secretariat

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 09:56 GMT]
The Presidential Secretariat Monday directed the closure of the Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) at the end of July. “We have not been told any specific reason for the decision. However we have been discussing such a scenario since last week,” SCOPP Director General, Professor Rajiva Wijesinghe, told media persons. He declined to comment on the government’s decision to close down the SCOPP.

"Winding up process of the SCOPP has started," Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe said though two weeks ago he had said that the SCOPP would not be closed down.

He said Monday to media persons that the future of the SCOPP is not in his hands but that of the Presidential Secretariat.

He added that SCOPP was going ahead with the process of closing down but the future of the SCOPP staff was uncertain since most of them were employed on a contract basis. He said about half of the operational staff had been laid off a few weeks ago and it was still not clear whether they would be absorbed into public service.

The SCOPP was established on 06 February 2002 with the approval of the Cabinet of Minister.

Mr. Bernard Goonetilake was the first Director General from 2000 to 2004, Mr.Jayantha Dhanapala from 2004-2005 and Dr. Palitha Kohona from 2006 to 2007.

Since 2008 Professor Rajiva Wijesinghe holds the post of Director General.