Top professional claims bureaucracy responsible for nation’s bankruptcy

CMA Sri Lanka Founder President Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala – Pic by Upul Abayasekara

By Charumini de Silva

In a hard-hitting evaluation of the recruitment process, CMA Sri Lanka Founder President Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala told a powerful gathering of professional accountants who manage a multitude of top companies that the bureaucracies are responsible for the bankruptcy of Sri Lanka. 

“No matter what decisions are taken by the Cabinet of Ministers, the bureaucracy can kill them all. Today that is exactly what has happened with the over 1.5 million bureaucracies of Sri Lanka,” he alleged, speaking at the inauguration of the two-day CMA’s Annual Conference 2022.

Despite having many local and international recognition of the CMA qualification which no State university has also received, he claimed that the bureaucracy was a key reason for the delay of the professional accountants recruited for Government vacancies.  

Watawala said no amount of taxes will be sufficient, to overcome the economic bankruptcy without fundamental components of management accountancy in place.

“There is no management in the governance of Sri Lanka. As professional accountants, we know what the country requires. If they come to us, we can advise on how to bring down the unnecessary costs and wastage. But to do so even, there are no records,” he claimed.

As per Prof. Watawala, the Companies Act of 2007 is also missing the fundamental accounting principle of asking firms to maintain the basic records of their business operations.

“There is no point in blaming only the politicians because it is the fault of the bureaucracies. When there are no basic records to submit at the bank, how can you expect them to repay than requesting a mortgage of an asset? The bureaucrats must first know how an economy works and understand the fundamentals of management,” he said.