National Integrity Awards recognise anti-corruption efforts

By David Ebert

The ninth consecutive National Integrity Awards was held last week to coincide with the United Nations Anti-Corruption Day which falls on 9 December annually. The award, which is given away to individuals and organisations as recognition of their silent service in anti-corruption activities and their role in supporting good governance and accountability, felicitated two individuals and a grassroots organisation from Ratnapura for their efforts.

Special Task Vigilant Division, Deputy Customs Superintendent P.J. Sanath Fernando was presented with this year’s National Integrity Award in recognition of his fearless efforts to curb corruption within the department. Two special mentions were also presented to Ampara regional journalist Achala Upendra Pussella for his exposure of illegal sand mining activities in his district and the Guruthwa Praja Jala Sanvidanaya from Ratnapura for a community run water supply scheme which took over from a provincial government run scheme which was closed down due to corruption and misappropriation.

The winners were selected by a five-member independent panel of judges consisting of the former secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration D. Dissanayake, former District Secretary Jayantha Bulumulla, retired District Judge S.H.N. Jameel, prominent management consultant Deepal Sooriyaarachchi and senior journalist V. Balasingham.

The Chief Guest at the ceremony was distinguished public servant and former secretary to nine Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka Deshamanya Bradman Weerakoon, while the Guest of Honour was senior Attorney-at-Law Arittha Wickramanayake, who incidentally was one of the founder trustees as well as the first Chairman of Transparency International Sri Lanka.

Delivering the welcome address TISL Executive Director S. Ranugge stated: “As you are aware, this award ceremony coincides with the United Nations Anti-Corruption day which falls on 9 December. The Anti-Corruption day is a strong symbol of the global commitment to fighting corruption and Sri Lanka too has joined this worldwide campaign by ratifying the UN Convention against corruption on 31 March 2004.”

Ranugge continued to draw attention to how organised corruption plays a huge role in retarding the development of a country and how it is the country’s poor that have to bear the brunt of public misappropriation and misconduct. “We all know that corruption is bad, it is a crime and many a time it is organised crime. Corruption is an enemy of the poor as it retards the nation’s progress and ruins the value system of our society. Public resources meant for the benefits of our people are used by some people in authority for their personal gains.”

In addition Ranugge also spoke of a measurement index developed by Transparency International in order to assess the level of corruption prevalent in countries all over the world which could be used to understand where and how a country could use it as a benchmark in order to improve its global standing.

“This is called the Corruption Perception Index and with this index we can understand where we stand. The index for this year was launched yesterday and Sri Lanka is placed at 79 out of 178 countries and the assessment has been done on a scale from 0 to 100, zero means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean. According to this scale Sri Lanka is at 40 and we don’t see much improvement over the past few years. In the South Asian context we are second to Bhutan but we cannot be satisfied since we are still below the 50 scale.”

Meanwhile, Ranugge also brought up a series of recent developments in the country which were disturbing indicators of the hardships faced by organisations that deal with the corruption issue: “Despite our fight against corruption, Sri Lanka is increasingly facing a series of governance issues and some are more visible than others. We have witnessed the crisis in the stock market a few months ago; the entire education sector was shaken with the Z score issue and the prolonged strike of the University teachers for more resource allocation for education. In addition inmates of the prison system are not secure and 27 of them were killed recently and procurement of goods and services in the public sector is shady and the Health Minister himself is openly talking about corruption in his Ministry. The latest in the series is the hurly burly between the judiciary and the legislature where the complainants have become judges of the case against the Chief Justice and in all accepted norms she has been denied justice.”

However, he also commended the efforts of the few noteworthy individuals that have stood up against all odds to make a significant contribution to their communities and continue the fight against corruption at the provincial and organisational level.

“There are some courageous people and organisations that stand tall with unblemished integrity in this corrupt environment; they are like lotus in a swamp. Today we have assembled here to recognise two such people and one organisation. They have been selected by an independent panel of judges following a vigorous process and I welcome and congratulate them.”

Chief Guest Deshamanya Bradman Weerakoon spoke focused his observation on the role of public servants and their participation in upholding integrity within the sector: “I know the word ‘peoples’ involves more than the public service, but since the public service of Sri Lanka comprises of more than 1 million men and women, excluding those in the armed services, and with their families cover 3 to 4 million of the 20 million Sri Lanka people taking that influential sector within our remit would be excusable. Moreover these million public officials, paid by us through our various taxes have a depth and reach that is very considerable. They can and should influence the highest policy makers in our society and touch every city, town and village in the North, South, East or West. You find them everywhere; you can’t do without them and you can’t escape them. They are a huge potential resource for good or ill; for acts which exclude integrity or acts which are anti-integrity.”

Accepting the first special mention award presented, Guruthwa Praja Jala Sanvidanaya Chairman, Upali Jayaweera said: “What we did was not to introduce a new concept that the people in our communities are unfamiliar with but rather to reintroduce a social and community scheme that’s has been a part of our culture but has been forgotten by our rural community. We would like to share this award with all similar organisations such as ours countrywide but remain unnamed and unrecognised.”

Journalist Achala Upendra Pussella who received the second special mention award pledged to carry out his work in highlighting injustice and institutional corruption for the benefit of his community in the Ampara district regardless of the dangers he faces each day: “The people of the Ampara district had a lot of positive expectations after the end of the war during which they suffered tremendously. However the dangers they faced back then have been replaced by another menace that still continues to affect their lives and this leaves them dejected and disappointed in how they are used and neglected by the authorities who themselves are to blame for the rampant provincial level corruption prevalent now. I believe that I have a role to play in my community to safeguard my community and expose in every way possible these very same corrupt practices and I will do so even at the risk of losing my own life.”

The highlight of the day was the presentation of the National Integrity Award to Special Task Vigilant Division, Deputy Customs Superintendent P.J. Sanath Fernando who paid tribute to all other public sector officials who continue to uphold their integrity regardless of the consequences they face each and every day and vowed to uphold his integrity in all he does.

       Pix by Upul Abayasekara