Unconscionable avarice

Tomorrow morning, 26 December 2019, it will be 15 years after the devastating tsunami, which Sri Lanka had to endure. The bruises, the scars, and much more, yet remain. The losses of lives, the emptiness in the lives and homes of many, and the physical and financial impact on the nation are horrific reminders to us all about the way we need to discipline and shape our lives and share what we have, whether it is time, money or possessions. 

An article of Monday 20 June 2016 in the Daily FT reminisces about that tsunami. Extracts of the article follow:

Losing two people I was working with at the time

There were many about whose loss I yet feel very sad. Some were very close. While we put the past behind us, the memories of each must discipline us to care, share, be content, avoid craving, avoid greed and not ask, demand, lament for or compete for everything in life.

I like to mention two names of people who we lost – who I was at that very moment working with on two consulting projects. One was Chartered Accountant Tilak Padmarajadasa, to whom I was happy I had referred a sizeable assignment, from the ADB, in the plantation sector, even though I had won it. Tilak was in accounting terms, an intellectual capital asset.

The other was Palitha Gunawardena, the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Palitha was a gentlemen, who together with the then SEC, chaired by no less than Lieutenant General Deshamanya Denis Perera, a diplomat, who served as Commander of the Sri Lankan Army from 1977 to 1981, and a former Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Australia, had retained me to perform a strategic review of the SEC

Your cup does not have to be full to share

It was through a competitive bidding process that I had won two assignments for the Plantation Sector, funded by the Asian Development Bank, which were monitored directly out of ADB’s Manila headquarters.  

Recognising that Tilak had come in second for one of the projects, I spoke with the Director in Manila and suggested that the main assignment I had for a fund required the second to be a feeder for timeliness and also independence and even though I had been awarded both there was an element of conflict of interest if I were to contract for both since the outcome of the second could have been tailor-made to benefit the beneficiaries of the first and vice versa. I suggested that she award the second to the next winner, Tilak. I was not working with Tilak at the time and had neither an obligation to him nor to his company nor would I derive any benefit of any kind by doing what I did.

Being assertive to forego what could have been mine

The Director stated that in her view she saw no conflict and urged me to sign up for both. In fact she was assertive. I somehow did not feel complete; also because I thought that if both were to run parallel, it would be good for all stakeholders. I had to counter her assertiveness. She wanted it in writing. Hence I wrote to the ADB in Manila, articulating the potential conflict of interest and declined the second assignment. I suggested that the consultant to the second assignment will be required to provide me with feedback and hence my expectation was that it had to be resourced by a party I had confidence in and could work with. Tilak was thus awarded the second assignment. 

Four coffins at the funeral

It was devastating to see four coffins at Tilak’s funeral; he, his wife and two children – a boy of seven and a girl of just five. It took years for the memory of that sad scene to fade away, though many will never forget Tilak. 

Apparently, moments before the Tsunami came inland, Tilak and his young family had had breakfast at the Lighthouse Hotel. He had ventured out when the tsunami began approaching, thinking he could escape it, despite the pleas of waiters that he should not leave. All four were trapped in their car. The bodies were identified the next day.  

DG Palitha and the SEC

As for the Strategic Review assignment for the SEC, I was conducting weekly workshops – diagnostic assessments of each division of the SEC and Palitha not only was present at each but made sure the full Commission Chaired by Deshamanya Denis Perera participated in many. Palitha was holidaying in Yala when the tsunami took him away. Today, 12 years later, we have commissioned IOSCO and the ADB to do much of what might have been implemented had that assignment been taken to completion.