Lanka heading for crash landing
The Daily Mirror in its Editorial on Monday focused on the dangerously rising wave of violent political crime and corruption – a trend that has given Sri Lanka the dubious distinction of being ranked as the ninth most dangerous country in the world. One of the hundreds of such violent crimes was the recent slaughter of a Deraniyagala tea estate superintendent who had courageously tried to stop the ransom demands, intimidation and thuggery by gangs reportedly connected to a leading ruling party politician in the area.
Besides these violent crimes by gangs which often appear to be beyond the law because they have the protection of powerful politicians, Sri Lanka is also plagued and the resources of the people are being plundered by high-level white-collar corruption which often reaches criminal proportions because of the vast amounts of money involved. Here too there are hundreds of cases, reported and unreported, and we refer today to two such cases exposed in the front page of our sister paper the Sunday Times on July 14.
The lead story revealed that the Treasury, using public money, had decided to bail out the highly-publicised SriLankan Airlines which when launched had proclaimed itself as the flag carrier of Sri Lanka paradise. The Treasury will pay Rs. 25 billion of the Rs. 36 billion the national carrier owes to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation for fuel which was supplied on credit. The CPC, which itself is facing blazing losses not only due to unpaid fuel bills but also due to other swindles and scandals – had threatened to cut off supplies to state institutions which exceeded credit limits. The more disturbing feature of the Treasury intervention to repay the massive debts of SriLankan Airlines is that the national carrier which suffered a loss of Rs. 378 million in 2010 saw the loss skyrocketing to a staggering 19.5 billion last year. Amid such a financial crisis, SriLankan Airlines has also borrowed billions at commercial interest rates to buy 10 Airbus aircraft at a cost of some Rs. 315 billion. We would not need a specialist in economics to question the validity of having flying sandcastles in the air. While the national carrier is flying into financial storm after storm, we also see the co-called budget carrier Mihin Air, obviously floated to perpetuate some VIP’s name or ego, squandering millions in public funds. Independent aviation analysts ask whether a small country like Sri Lanka which cannot run one national carrier properly, has a need for a second airline. If not it would not be incorrect to suggest that the second loss-making airline is being maintained for someone’s personal glory at public expense at a time when millions of people are struggling for survival and a large number are surviving below the poverty line.
Another extravagant pie in the sky is the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA). More than four months after the grand opening of this Chinafunded and Chinese-built master-piece of modern airports, it is said to be idle most of the time with only about 14 flights a week, most of them diversions by the national carrier from the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake. In contrast, the Katunayake Airport had about 50 flights last Saturday.
According to reports, the Government is offering more concessions to attract international carriers to the MRIA, but one Arab airline which recently pulled out said it did so because some of the flights to MRIA had less than 10 passengers.
If this wholesale waste and abuse of public funds without accountability or transparency continues, it is plain that Sri Lanka is heading for a crash-landing soon.