Transparency and COVID-19 support

One of the many important duties of parliament is to promote transparency. Sri Lanka is still a country where proactive sharing of information, especially regarding high level decision making is rarely presented to the public in a timely manner and easy to understand way. Parliament is therefore an essential platform to extract information and hold the Government to at least some level of transparency.  

The public pays taxes and parliament, which is made up of public representatives, has been empowered by the Constitution to oversee public finance and push for as much transparency and accountability as possible within the governance system. Where parliament cannot tread the judiciary is often needed. Parliament is also expected to strive to ensure that public funds are spent as much as possible based on public interest and key institutions perform according to the law. 

However, with parliament being dissolved the question of who will ensure this transparency, at least in part has been raised. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa releasing a statement on Sunday argued that if Opposition parliamentarians are concerned about how public funds are being allocated then they only need to wait until the next parliament is convened to raise questions in parliament. Unfortunately this retrospective action does not yield much confidence as once the funds are allocated and spent holding anyone to account after the fact is always a troublesome effort in Sri Lanka, which usually ends in failure. 

The ethical and moral standards that Governments must adhere to when dealing with public finance and the institutions that direct it have been wanting for decades. It is questionable whether either of the main parties have the moral standing to say they have performed better than the other. Corruption scandals have tainted the Governments that top parliamentarians have been part of for the better part of the last two decades but it is also impossible to give up on the fight for transparency. 

In the wake of COVID-19 the need for public finance to become more transparent is more. It is clear that for Sri Lanka to recover and return to growth there will have to be stronger investment in public healthcare, wider social safety nets, access to the internet, and support for struggling businesses, all in the middle of a global recession. The fiscal space for all that needs to be done is narrow. It has been repeated ad infinitum that Sri Lanka’s low levels of public revenue and high debt will cause significant challenges to the recovery process. 

In the midst of this transparency is more important than ever to see which expenditures are in the public’s best interest. Some could argue that large scale infrastructure developments are not a priority but according to reports over the weekend the Government has already allocated Rs. 31.7 billion to kick off the Central Expressway. Perhaps there is reason for this decision but it should be placed before the public and that is what is lacking. 

The Government is also rolling out a Rs. 50 billion program to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and again there should be transparency about how it is implemented. Billions more are needed for the fertiliser subsidy and relief handouts to the poor. There is little doubt these are needed but how transparency is merged with these expenditures will promote their sustainability and improve the chances of them reaching those most in need