Eradication of corruption: ignoring Harshas

warning may be catastrophic to Yahapalana

Government

National Policies and Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva

A lamenting Deputy Minister

Monday, 11 September 2017

Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development Dr. Harsha de

Silva in an emotion-filled intervention during a live television discussion program
berated the whole administrative system of the country (available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7XgAbIfq1o).

His charge was that from top to bottom and from one side to the other, known to
strategic planners as viewing things from a 360 dimension, things have been
marred with stinking corruption, waste and theft of public funds.
Hurling corruption charges at each other

He has confessed that he had been disgusted with the nauseating politics and the
corrupt system that has nurtured it. Instead of using time, energy and resources
for planning and implementing policies for the development of the country,
everyone is engaged in hurling corruption charges at each other.

One politician is charging another that the latter is corrupt; the latter retorts
immediately charging that it is the former who is corrupt. Thus, everyone tries to
play the role of the good policeman believing that all others are at fault. Harsha
says that his intention in entering politics has not been to function as a policeman.

Corruption is everywhere

Instead he has joined the political force to use his technical capability as an
economist for the betterment of people. Yet, what he observes is widespread
corruption everywhere, for example, from municipal councils to hospitals to
private eating houses.
One cannot have a building plan approved, charges Harsha, unless he is ready to
pay a bribe to local authority officials. Even at hospitals, if one wants to get
preferential treatment, one has to pay a bribe. His position is that this epidemic
should be eradicated if Sri Lanka is to develop as a decent nation.

Fighting against corruption

Harsha has observed both the small and big picture of corruption profile of Sri
Lanka. In his charge against corruption, he has been both angry and emotional.
Angry because he has been such a small keg in the power machinery of the
country that he cannot direct bigger forces for building a clean society according
to his ideals. He had been a vociferous critic, both in Parliament and outside, of
the previous administrations alleged corrupt deals and practices (available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kWIlDAiIjw).
Failure to investigate corruption charges

Now, even after two years in power these charges have not been conclusively
investigated, specifically the losses incurred by the Central Bank on account of the
alleged hedging deal and investment in Greece bonds. He had also charged the
Central Bank on account of misusing funds belonging to the members of the
Employees Provident Fund or EPF by the previous administration. Yet, nothing
had happened about making formal inquiries into those allegations.

Expressing dissatisfaction at a public forum

His dissatisfaction was openly expressed when he questioned in a public forum
the Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendtran, an appointee to that post
by his Government, about the wasteful investment of EPF funds in the stock
market (available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8DfVl2-3n0).

After Governor Mahendran gave an irrelevant

answer, he went on grilling him about the wisdom of EPF-owning private banks.
Controlling private banks through EPF

This was a criticism levelled against the previous administration and when the
new government came to power, it was expected to be rectified. But Governor
Mahendran, who appeared to be ignorant of the previous criticisms levelled by
Harsha, justified the investments in question on the grounds that it would
increase the return to members, albeit the published data had suggested the
opposite.

This writer too in two previous articles called the Government to divest the shares
owned by EPF in private banks due to the potential conflict which it brings to the
Monetary Board of the Central Bank.
Continuing to follow the previous administration

Yet the Government continued to use the extraordinary privilege which it had
inherited from the previous administration to control private banks by appointing
its own members as board members. Thus, instead of ushering an era of good
governance, it continued to practice the same malgovernance principles
unabated.

Corruption charges against the present Government

The present Government was brought to power by people to eliminate corruption

and create a law-abiding clean society. But its track record during the last two and
a half years has been marred with similar corruption charges. Now Harsha, sitting
on the other side of the debate, has been required to answer those charges in
public. Naturally, he should be angry about the embarrassing position to which he
has now been driven.
An ambulance service coming under attack

Harsha has been emotional not only when he has been too angry at injustice. He
has been emotional when the fruits of his labour had produced the required
results too. One such occasion has been the inauguration of the Indian
Government sponsored ambulance service in Sri Lanka. That service was the
target of criticism by the Government Medical Officers Association or GMOA
which had issues with India on account of the proposed Economic and Technology
Cooperation Agreement, popularly known as ETCA, with that country.

Hence, objecting to everything Indian, the GMOA began a campaign against the
service that it would pave the way for unqualified Indian paramedics to play with
the lives of vulnerable and voiceless Sri Lankan patients. It even raised a national
security issue for Sri Lanka implying that those ambulances, manned by Indians,
could have access even to the Presidents residence. Thus, when the first batch of
Sri Lankan paramedics was trained and recruited to the service, Harsha became
too emotional to deliver his speech (available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SZCZaiK_FM).
The exemplary track record of the ambulance service

The track record of the ambulance service since its inauguration has shown that it
has indeed been a lifesaver for Sri Lankans, contrary to the demonic picture
painted by GMOA. This writer can vouch for its excellent service with firsthand
experience. The occasion arose when his elder sister suffered a massive stroke in
the evening of a public holiday when no one was around at home.

With no other alternative available, Harshas ambulance service was contacted

for help. Within five minutes of calling, an ambulance showed up at the residence
staffed by paramedics and equipped with most modern first aid apparatuses. The
paramedics, who were all Sri Lankans, provided all the first aid necessary whilst in
transit including the supply of life saving oxygen to the patient. They were
constantly in contact with the hospital about the patient being transported and,
therefore, the hospital staff was in readiness to receive her. The driver who was
also a Sri Lankan navigated the vehicle expertly to reach the hospital within
minutes.

Her life was saved because she could get the required medical attention in time.
The central office of the ambulance service had later contacted the niece of this
writer to ascertain whether she was satisfied or not with the service provided.
Such customer satisfaction and suggestion seeking follow-ups with citizens are
totally alien to the other public services in the country.
Institutionalisation of corruption in Sri Lanka

The problem with Sri Lanka is that corruption has been institutionalised as a
normal activity. It is a part of the value system of Sri Lankans. The public sector
that includes politicians believes that it is their right to get illegal rewards from
the public and pocket out them without disclosing to anyone.

The private sector believes that it is their obligation to award various forms of
gratifications to those in power. Thus, touts flock around politicians when they
come to power and function as middlemen soliciting unearned rewards from
people when they want to get even legitimate services from the Government.

If people do not oblige, papers would be unnecessarily delayed or even files

would disappear without a trace. Papers would reappear only after the rates of
unearned rewards are agreed upon and delivered.
Shadowy bodies around real administration bodies

Many have experienced that at every public sector regulatory body, there is a
shadowy body too and they have to first go through that shadowy body before
their applications can be considered by the real regulatory body. Since time and
inconvenience are costly, people choose the easy path of agreeing with the rate
of reward to be awarded to the people behind the shadowy body.

At the lowest level, even getting a rates file transferred at a local body requires a
citizen to face the reality of the shadowy local body if he is to have his request
processed by the real local body. The normal modus operandi is that the citizen
would be informed that the file is incomplete and therefore cannot be processed.
If it goes on for some time without awarding the requested reward, the file would
simply disappear to miraculously reappear once the reward is properly paid out.

At the highest level, many foreign investors have confided with this writer that
their applications for approval of foreign investments had to be first tackled at the
shadowy approving body before they were to be processed by the real approving
body. This system is deeply rooted within Sri Lankas culture today. When it could
no longer be tolerated, the citizenry changed the Government in January 2015 to
put a stop to it.

Increase in corruption perception after the new Government came to power

However, after the new Government came to power, instead of reducing the
corruption levels, the overall corruption perception in Sri Lanka has increased
over the last two years, according to the Corruption Perception Index being
compiled by Berlin-based Transparency International annually.

In the corruption perception, if a country is extremely corrupt, its score is zero out
of 100; if it is very clean, it can expect to have a perfect score of 100. In Sri Lankas
case, at the end of 2014, the country had scored 38 out of 100; that score had
placed it at the 85th position out of 174 countries (available at:
https://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results).

After two years of the new Good Governance Government, Sri Lankas score has
fallen to 36 out of 100 lowering it the 95th position out of 176 countries (available
at:
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_201
6).

This deterioration has taken place despite the fact that only 20% in Sri Lanka
believing that corruption has increased and 49% thinking that the government is
fighting hard to eliminate corruption, according to a report published by
Transparency International in March 2017 (available at:
http://files.transparency.org/content/download/2118/13484/file/2017_GCB_Asia
Pacific_EN.pdf).

According to this report, people have perceived that the Police has been the most
corrupt institution followed by public bodies that issue permits, public schools,
water and power authorities, and the courts system. Government hospitals have
maintained less corrupt systems, as revealed in this report.
Dont be complacent about small gains of corruption perception

Sri Lanka is still better than some of the countries in the region like Pakistan or
India. In India, the percentage of people who have paid a bribe to receive public
services has been about 69% and in Pakistan, it is about 40%. Comparably, Sri
Lankas percentage has been low at 15%. This is not a reason for the Government
to be complacent.
Government says it is committed to fighting against corruption
Corruption is still stinking and unless the Government takes action to nip it in the
bud, it infects the whole society like an epidemic. Sri Lanka is gradually moving to
this level and it is not a good sign for a country which aspires to become a rich
country by 2025, according to the vision of the present Government. Richness
does not come through only an increase in income or material well being. It
comes through a culture in which people recognise that seeking unearned
incomes from fellow citizens is immoral and unethical.

When the corruption levels are low, it gives incentives for people to work harder
and enjoy the fruits of their labour. That is the system that is conducive for a
country to attain a sustainable economic growth. Thus, Harshas lamentation
should be followed by concrete action to eradicate corruption. The Governments
V2025 document has pledged that it is committed to fight against corruption
since it negatively impacts the countrys global outlook. This is a fair enough
promise, but these words have to be converted to deeds if real results are to be
attained on the ground.
(W.A. Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,
can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com).

Posted by Thavam