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Wednesday, 24 July 2013 00:58 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
COPE Chairman, Senior Minister and veteran Leftist politician D.E.W. Gunesekera said massive losses were threatening the collapse of key State institutions including the country’s electricity supplier and national carrier that could have a ripple effect on Sri Lanka’s banking system.
Hailing what he called a ‘historic’ report that had scrutinised the financial performance of 244 public enterprises in 2011, Gunasekera emphasised in Parliament that “the Executive should heed the findings and recommendations of the COPE report.”
COPE, which deliberated and conducted meetings for 15 months, investigated and made recommendations to improve performance of the respective organisations in terms of profit-making, operational and finance management, maintaining checks and balances, and prudent decision making.
COPE Chairman said the committee’s first report had had a tremendous impact on the financial discipline of the public enterprises leading to satisfactory performance and improvements. Yesterday’s report is the second report published since the COPE was appointed in June 2010.
According to Minister Gunasekera, having followed the recommendations given in the previous COPE report, nine public enterprises have managed to turn around and have started making profits and 38 institutions have increased their profits against the 12 institutions which started making losses.
They should be made fully answerable and accountable for their performances. This can be ensured by the maximum degree of autonomy and minimum degree of interference from above. There is a dearth of professionals in the field of accountancy which can only be corrected through a deserving remuneration,” the report said in its preamble.
COPE called on the Treasury and the Public Administration Ministry to consider seriously these deficiencies in order to enhance the quality of leadership. “It is high time that we shift to a higher level of accounting and auditing in keeping with international standards. This is imperative in the case of large public enterprises,” said Minister Gunasekara, who identified Ceylon Electricity Board, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, Mihin Lanka and SriLankan Airlines as total failures among a list of 12 loss making ventures in Sri Lanka due to bad operations and financial decision making.
Opposition Legislator Karu Jayasuriya, who headed one of the three subcommittees of the COPE, recommended that “appointing suitably qualified people for high ranking managerial positions” would reduce the loss making and improve productivity.
Meanwhile, COPE Member and UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne suggested presenting COPE reports every three months to enable the public to witness the improvements in the respective organisations. “We will also inform the public in advance about the State ventures which will be called for COPE examinations. Such notice will enable the public as well as media to reveal certain issues and make suggestions,” said Wickramaratne.
He added: “Regardless of the summons, some of the limited liability institutions avoid COPE. We will implement a system where they will obey COPE. As for the appointing of relatives to high positions, COPE recommends that the respective persons at least have some sort of related professional qualification. SriLankan Airlines is the best example. The chairman should have been a person with some experience, either local or foreign, directly related to aviation.”
However, UNP MP Sujeewa Senasinghe disagreed with Minister D.E.W Gunasekara holding the post of COPE Chairman, which “has to be held by a member of the Opposition”, selected by the Parliament in accordance to the Commonwealth parliamentary principles.
