One of the last hits performed by the late great Sunil Perera of Gypsies fame was a song titled ‘I Don’t Know Why’. The outspoken Perera, who openly expressed his displeasure over the state of governance in Sri Lanka both on and off the stage, often observed that he was born in a developing nation and seven decades later he would also have to die in the same developing nation. Mercifully for Perera, he passed just before the country was declared bankrupt.
But, coming back to his song, it highlights – in a politically correct manner – the single biggest stumbling block that has prevented this nation from rising to its true potential: substandard political leadership; how politicians have reduced governance in this country to a joke.
We were reminded of Perera and his song while observing the response of the official Cabinet Spokesperson last week, when journalists questioned him about the controversial decision to hand over visa processing to a third party. Asked as to why the Government was not following the IMF’s stipulated procedure on calling for open tender and if Cabinet was aware of the VFS service fees for entry visas, Minister Bandula Gunawardana’s response was: “I don’t know, I don’t remember.” However, what the rest of the country remembers is that he is the second Cabinet Minister to feign ignorance of outsourcing the visa issuance to a tripartite consortium. The other individual is the Tourism Minister, who even threatened to resign if the previous single entry fee was not restored.
Despite the Cabinet Spokesman of all people going on record that he is unaware of approval for the new visa regime, the line Minister continues to insist that requisite approval was obtained. So then who are we, the people, to believe?
And then, yet another parliamentary duel last week had Perera’s song playing on a loop in our head. This time it was Minister Kanchana Wijesekera holding forth in Parliament on the Diana Gamage episode. His contention was that, since MP Gamage was unseated on being identified as a foreign citizen, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) registered by her should also be considered invalid. However, Wijesekera went silent when reminded that his own party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), would in that case also have to suffer the same fate as it too was founded by a foreign citizen – Basil Rajapaksa.
Not just that, the SLPP stands accused of receiving millions of dollars in foreign funding at the initial stage. In 2016 The New York Times ran a yet uncontradicted and unchallenged story that the Chinese Government through one of its proxies had made multiple donations amounting to $ 7.6 million in 2015.
For the record, however, as clarified by a former Elections Commissioner, both the SJB and SLPP have been duly recognised by the Election Commission as legal and lawfully formulated and registered within the provisions of the existing election law, rendering arguments to the contrary futile.
Be that as it may, if the Cabinet Spokesman is unaware of a Cabinet decision on the visa matter, there are two distinct possibilities – either the Public Security Minister is being economical with the truth or the Cabinet Spokesman is unsuitable to hold the post, being unaware of such an important decision. The coming days will likely define as to which of the two should prevail, but, as the song goes, don’t be surprised if both prevail as even though most won’t know why, some will.
Notwithstanding the triviality accorded to matters of profound national importance by the powers that be, one thing that stands out is the continuing inability of the regime to walk the talk in the quest for anything resembling good governance. The failure to fall in line with the IMF-prescribed procurement guidelines has resulted in the fight against corruption being reduced to non-existent status.
For the record, however, the IMF Governance Diagnostic Report clearly recommends in Article 6 the need to enhance transparency in fiscal governance by enacting a public procurement law, making the requirement for open tender for all public procurement absolute and non-negotiable. The ministry tasked with implementation responsibility as per the IMF report is the Ministry of Finance; the Minister concerned being the President. Therefore, are we to assume that the Finance Ministry has been overridden by the Ministry of Public Security in this specific instance by entertaining unsolicited bids or is the Finance Ministry uninterested in fulfilling its role under the IMF guidelines?
After all, if the Finance Ministry does not take the lead in implementation of the recommendations as specified, then there is little that can be expected of other ministries when it comes to procurement – the most corruption prone aspect of governance. What is clearly irksome to the public is that, having been forced to shoulder the bulk of the burden of the economic revival endeavour through near-strangulating taxation which the regime has conveniently blamed on the IMF, it has so far failed to implement the key guideline that warrants immediate implementation put forward by the same institution.
The regime that should in fact take ownership of the reform agenda in toto and not what is convenient to it appears to be taking things ever so lightly, not only with the implementation aspect but also in the implementation of austerity measures which now seem to have been thrown out the window in light of the approaching elections, with a spending spree imminent. Some of the likely events include granting duty-free vehicle permits for outgoing MPs, handouts of freebies to the electorate, and the allocation of funds running into billions for local level development projects, which too has run into controversy over potential violation of election laws.
To add insult to injury, even Parliament’s control of public finance seems to be compromised by the conduct of certain ministries. For instance, the Ministry of Public Security, represented by its secretary, failed to turn up for an inquiry on the visa controversy in Parliament last week, ignoring summons issued by the Committee on Public Finance. Consequently, the Chairman of the key Parliament oversight committee, MP Dr. Harsha de Silva, was compelled to lodge a complaint with the Speaker citing violation of parliamentary privileges. The excuse trotted out by the Ministry Secretary for the no-show borders on outright ridiculous, having cited difficulties as a result of the ministry being shifted in 2016.
Who are these officials whose wages are paid by the public trying to hoodwink? Isn’t the terminal damage already caused as a result of a toxic combination of corruption and poor governance bad enough? Besides, what austerity or budget discipline does the Government practice when it decides to allocate Rs. 1 billion for AI research while critical health services such as the Suwa Seriya ambulance service are neglected and crying out for help?
Meanwhile, a local think tank, Verité Research, has come out with a startling discovery that almost 40% of the increased tax revenue is being gobbled up by a single-line item in the form of increased funding for meals and uniforms of service personnel translating into a 75% cost increase year on year. Has Sri Lanka not had enough of callous governance, which ultimately drove it to bankruptcy?
By all indications nothing much appears to have changed, with politics taking precedence over national interest. What takes the cake in this respect is the announcement by the governing SLPP’s Party Leader that he and his party are opposed to privatisation, while the Minister of Power and Energy who represents that party is currently championing the break-up and subsequent divestiture of the Ceylon Electricity Board. If this isn’t ‘playing politics’ by definition, then what is?