Minister of Water Supply Jeevan Thondaman’s recent statement in Parliament regarding the gross politicisation of a key national utility service provider – The National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB), highlights the corrosive nature of the long-standing political culture of promises of employment given to supporters of political parties and politicians.
It is a fact that the NWSDB is infamous for its efficiency when discharging its duties to the customers or the public at large. Like many state institutions which are part of the bloated state sector, the NWSDB’s inefficiencies and poor service can be linked to the politicisation which has been occurring over the decades. The rot of politicisation of State-owned Enterprises (SoEs) has plagued Sri Lankan society and the Public Service for generations.
It may have contributed to the accumulated effects, which led to the economic downfall and bankruptcy we faced last year. The high staff numbers at institutions like the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Railways are also reportedly due to many rotations of political appointments, during the tenure of consecutive governments.
Responding to a question by a fellow Parliamentarian, Minister Thondaman said: “I had to deal with an unusually high number of political appointments, and today, the ministry stands close to 70%, in terms of the unskilled labour force. We are short-staffed in many areas and over-staffed in some.” Irony is that Thondaman’s reply came after a question was asked if the NWSDB could hire more labourers, as a means of offering more employment opportunities. The minister had informed Parliament that further recruitment of labourers was not possible. Last year, Cabinet Spokesperson and Minister of Transport and Highways and Mass Media Dr. Bandula Gunawardena pointed out that Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) had paid more than it had earned as overtime payments, despite hiking fares to reduce losses. In 2020, SLR revenue remained at Rs. 4.5 billion, however expenditure amounted to Rs. 44 billion, Minister Gunawardena said. Meanwhile, SLR incurred a loss of Rs. 40.4 billion in 2021 as stated by the Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). And look at what the SLR has to show for it? The SLR is in shambles, with politically-stacked trade unions now pushing back against reforms whichplans to make the service more efficient. Last evening’s railway strike is how the ‘public service’ repays the commuter and taxpayer who pays their monthly wage, in the face of reform.
The oversized state sector, packed to the brim with political stooges and unskilled labour, has been trusted on the shoulders of Sri Lanka’s narrow taxpaying base, while the overheads needed to keep the merry band of employees have been prioritised over critical sectors which should have been improved over many years. The mass employment of unskilled labour due to political reasons, is nothing new to South Asia. However, Sri Lanka can ill afford to allow the corrupt practice and the pork barrel tactics to continue.
The issue has become so significant that the IMF has flagged it in their bail out plans, forcing the Government to now, overnight ditch their merry band of henchmen in the state sector, and essentially trim the fat that has been chewing away at the state coffers over generations. Whether the Government will have the political will to undo their blundering over decades, remains to be seen.
The long-term political practice of providing party members and supporters unskilled labour, with all the bells and whistles that a permanent employment opportunity in the public sector provides in Sri Lanka has created generations of those who have not bothered to up skill, unprepared to be retained and is extremely inefficient at their jobs. Further, it has convinced a generation in the workforce that there is no need to improve themselves or up skill to become more employable. Why would they, where is the incentive, when all you have to do is to support your political representative and…Abracadabra!, you get employed in a slow moving 9 to 5 job with little to do!