End the corruption

Friday, 24 February 2012 00:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

THE effects of the fuel price hike and its effect on public expenditure is finally beginning to surface.

The Finance Ministry has directed all Government institutions to limit their consumption of fuel and electricity as a priority following the upward revision of prices.

The Ministry has emphasised that this is a national responsibility entrusted on all Government institutions. The objective of the Government by this measure is to save valuable foreign exchange spent on importing fuel for transportation and generating electricity.

In addition to this, the Government expects that institutions coming under it should pay more attention on alternative energy sources and improve such facilities while taking suitable steps to introduce efficient technical methods of fuel/electricity consumption.

The Department of National Budget has issued a circular on 16 February giving instructions to set an example to the country by the public sector. The Budget Circular holds the secretaries to ministries responsible for using fuel/electricity in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

However, what has not been considered in this circular and the broader Government policy, is why public wastage in State institutions have not been addressed more comprehensively before. The repeated failure of the Government’s top leaders from the President downward to take action on billions of rupees of wastage that has and is still taking place, seems to have slipped the attention of the Finance Ministry.

Repeated reports by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the bribery and Corruption Commission as well as a plethora of other underpowered organisations have done little to stamp out corruption. This uninterrupted wastage has cost the country at least 2% of GDP or more and that could have gone a long away into helping the Government handle the current spike of costs better.

Development is good but unmanaged development is no development at all. Projects that are badly planned and monitored even worse, which run above cost and are sucked by corrupt officials and politicians all go under the Government’s radar. It is well known that nothing is done because many of the offenders are those at top policy making levels – so the charade goes on.

Rather than sending random circulars to close the door after the horse has long since bolted, the Finance Ministry together with other Government ministries and stakeholders would be far better off working towards transparency and good governance in their financial allocations. This will be a bitter pill to swallow for many officials but it would clean out the governance issues that have plagued Sri Lanka for decades.

With challenging domestic and international situations the need for watchdogs, can only be supplied by the right to information – a point that has been completely dismissed by the President to date. So while the Finance Ministry sends out yet another stop gap measure, the real need of the country remains unattended. Will it emerge from the shadows only when it is too late?