One of the key reasons why Sri Lanka entered a downward spiral and ended up in declaring bankruptcy was due to the public’s lack of involvement in governance and policy making. Traditionally, Sri Lankans have left policy making to the elected officials and as the business of government, was seen just as that, something which the government was entrusted to do, and has nothing to do with the common man.
The folly of such thinking, and the adverse impact which the community collectively suffered over the last two years, should be a wakeup call for the citizenry get more involved in governance, especially because Sri Lankan policymakers and public officials have time and again shown, that left to their own devices, the State will royally mess it up for the public.
Recently, the Court of Appeal upheld an order by the Right to Information (RTI) Commission declaring Litro Gas Lanka Ltd., and Litro Gas Terminal Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd., as a Public Authority (PA) and directed the release of the salary details of the top officials of the company. This was following a prorogued RTI request by a chartered engineer who had been the Operations Director of Litro Gas Lanka Ltd., claims his services were unfairly terminated and that there is an application pending in the Labour Tribunal. When the RTI Commission took up the appeal by the former, the Commission dismissed the position that Litro Gas does not qualify as a PA and directed Litro Gas to provide the requested information. The State-owned Enterprise (SOE) had refused to do so and taken the matter before courts. The Court of Appeal decision is an important one, which highlights the need for a change in a long-standing practice by state institutions and enterprises denying information to the public. The Court also held that information on salaries is personal information but public interest overrides this as public funds are involved. Therein lies the key phrase–Public Interest. And the order by the Court to uphold the decision by the RTI commission is a win for all Sri Lankans, as we have a right to know the workings of the government and the public sector.
The Sunday Morning and The Daily Morning have written extensively on the governance issues that plague Sri Lanka, including what transpires within many of the debt laden SOE’s. The Right to Information Act, is a powerful tool to explore governance and ensure accountability, as should be practised by more Sri Lankans. We must all shine a light on all levels of governance, and policy making to be better informed and to ensure Sri Lanka does not enter a downward spiral again. With a season of elections looming ahead, fair-minded Sri Lankans ought to employ the RTI Act to better scrutinise election funding and spending patterns. Sri Lanka’s political trajectories have traditionally been relatively dependent on the ‘election budget’ of key parties, and as such it is no secret that, many who wish to gain favour or influence with a future government, moves to provide funding for political campaigns. Such practices often lead to policy formulation and decisions which are not in the public’s best interest.
Recently, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka moved to give themselves a pay raise. Of course everyone in Sri Lanka deserves a pay raise, but these are public officials, and are supposed to be working in the public’s interest. The CBSL has indicated that they would like to clarify the reasons why they have decided to give themselves a pay hike. Perhaps this is an opportune moment for the citizenry to practise their RTI skill and find out how the CBSL pays their staff and what rationale they use to calculate the salary hike. After all, being a public entity which advocates fiscal discipline, the CBSL will surely explain their stance.