Payback time with portfolios!

The President’s decision to reshuffle the Cabinet by appointing key loyalists as 10 new Ministers, two Project Ministers and six Deputy Ministers stopped short of a large scale overhaul, but could have repercussions on public finance and development.

Overall Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has been enlarged by five new portfolios. President’s Media announced the new appointees after a day of heightened speculation among the local media that attempted to predict who the new ministers would be.

The prophesied appointment of MP Namal Rajapaksa to the post of Deputy Sports Minister proved false as did the expectation that Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa would be sworn in as Prime Minister. The non-appointment of Namal Rajapaksa should not come as a surprise as the President and his family are confident enough of their power not to need fancy designations. These are clearly approval appointments given to MPs who have showed their loyalty, especially with regard to the recently-enacted controversial impeachment.

This was even more apparent by the fact that the more powerful ministerial portfolios were handed over to ministers who had played a crucial role in impeaching Bandaranayake and so had “proved” loyalty to the President.

The new Minister for Power and Energy had handed over the petition signed by 117 MPs to kick-start the impeachment process while the Petroleum Minister had headed the contentious Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) that found Bandaranayake guilty of three out of 14 charges against her.

Many of the top ministerial posts were merely exchanged between powerful Members of Parliament (MPs) who were appointed after President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term in 2010.

Investment Promotion, which was under the Economic Development Ministry, has been established as a separate entity with former Economic Development Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana taking on the mantle.

Isolating the Investment Promotion Ministry is seen as an attempt to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Sri Lanka, which despite four years of peace has been lagging behind expectations. In 2012 the Government was only able to meet half of its US$ 2 billion projection for FDI, according to the Central Bank.

Sugar Industries as well as Botanical Gardens and Public Enterprises were two new Cabinet portfolios created by the reshuffle, while Productivity Promotion and Wildlife Conservation were given to new ministers.

In another fresh development, Rajapaksa has created an Educational Services portfolio that is expected to trim the powers of the existing Education Minister. How responsibilities will be divided between these two ministries is yet to be outlined. It is also likely that the Rajapaksa regime has traded the new ministry for more loyalty in the periphery, which was obvious given Duminda Dissanayake’s link to Berty Premalal Dissanayake.

Overall there were a few murky appointments too, which raises questions over the respective Ministers’ rank on the loyalty list and how it will affect their political prospects.

For the public, the events of Monday are unlikely to mean anything more than an increase in expenditure. New Cabinet posts, project ministries and senior ministers are seen as add-ons to the already heavy burden borne by the masses. Therefore it becomes all the more important to work efficiently and cohesively so that the new Ministers can continue the positive work, upgrade on it and also keep to the current expenditure projections outlined in the 2013 Budget. It is now time to prove whether the fresh appointees have loyalty to the people.