President controls smaller share of govt expenditure: Manthri.lk

Dec 18, 2015 (LBO)  -  Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena controls a smaller percentage of total government expenditure compared with his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to budget analysis conducted by Manthri.lk. The former president had 1.6 trillion rupees under his portfolios, while the current president has 377 billion rupees under his purview. Manthri.lk profiles the actions and activities of the 225 members of Parliament and provides a MP monitoring scorecard. According to the site, Defence has the second highest allocation of expenditure, but it is the 34th most discussed topic in Parliament. 53 MPs contribute to discussions. Agriculture, which has the 12th largest allocation of expenditure, is the 19th most discussed topic with 94 MPs contributing to discussions. Local government has the third highest budget allocation, but it is the 22nd most discussed topic in Parliament. According to Manthri.lk, recognizing the need for accountability between MPs and their electorates, the site seeks to promote transparency and good governance in order to improve Sri Lanka's democratic framework. It ranks MP's on the basis of productive time spent on 42 topics based on an objective coding system. The site collects data from an analysis of the Parliamentary Hansard, which is then entered into a detailed classification coding system.