SL public sector: Women stronger on governance

One of Sri Lanka’s top private sector professionals Dr. Rohantha Athukorala who has served the country as the Chairman Sri Lanka Export Development Board, Sri Lanka Tourism and the state retail giant Lanka Sathosa commented, “In my experience in the public sector I found women stronger on financial governance,” at the Evening Seminar presented by Women In Management (WIM) under the theme ‘Thinking outside the gender box’.

The chief guest at the event was Deputy Minister for State Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne whilst the other speakers were TATA Capital Finance Services Head of Business Development Kashmira Mewawala, IFC Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives Amena Arif, WIM Founder Dr. Sulochana Segera, Ambassador of the Republic of Maldives Zahiya Zareer and Nidro Supplies Managing Director Dawn Austin. 

Dr. Athukorala being vocal on the theme of the conference mentioned that, after serving the UN for five years in Sri Lanka and Maldives, when the Yahapalana Government came to power he agreed to serve the country for two years which he completed in February 2017, and his take was that the current Government has failed to live up to the expectation of eradicating/mitigating corruption and bringing in Governance to the public sector. Thinking outside the box he went on to state that he will not encourage private sector to step into the public sector if the role of the Chairman was to legitimise corruption in the system at a time when the country needs is strong performance to move the country out of the debt trap that it is in. 

But he encouraged the private sector to be more engaged with the relevant line ministry so that the necessary reforms can be instilled to make Sri Lanka competitive. “We must support the President and Prime Minister to make Sri Lanka great again he said but staying above board financially should not be a choice but a value. We in the private sector must not encourage the public sector for corruption, he voiced strongly. 

The speaker said, “Women contribute to more than 15 billion dollars in foreign exchange revenue from the apparel industry to tea sector. From the foreign employment in the Middle East to the tourism sector women contribute significantly given their multi tasking skill set, the attention to detail and attitude to getting the job done whilst in the public sector the financial governance can be added to the attribute basket.”