TIME RIGHT TO CONDUCT THOROUGH POST-ANALYSIS ON PC’S - PREZ

Time was right to conduct a thorough post-analysis on powers devolved to Provincial Councils, their employment and administrative structure as various positive and negative opinion on the PC system exists in the country, President Maithripala Sirisena said.

President Sirisena added that it was a lapse that no government had ventured into carrying out an assessment on the PC system for 30 years since its establishment under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in November 1987, President Sirisena noted.

Addressing a ceremony held after the opening of a new building for the Finance Commission at Rajagiriya yesterday (01) President Sirisena went onto say that it was extremely vital to go through the inter connection and the effect of the concurrent list, and the council list, the products of power devolution under the 13th Amendment.

He said the Finance Commission plays a vital part to improve transparency, carry out proper accounting standards in the PCS and government Institutions though both sectors have been infected with inefficiency, low productivity, waste and corruption. Almost all state ventures are loss making. It is rare that a statutory body provides its annual report with accounts to the Auditor General as required by the law. The Auditor

We talk more often than not about a mountain of foreign loans. But I don’t think if we make the public and provincial service and statutory bodies, productive, efficient and refrain from waste and loss making. Sri Lanka must not obtain heavy loans from the World Bank, IMF or Asian Development Bank or any other global financial institutions

General in his review outlines necessary remedial measures to minimize losses at government bodies.

“But who follows these guidelines and take corrective measures as recommended by the Auditor General to rectify those lapses. My opinion is that all Ministers, Ministry Secretaries and Heads of loss making public ventures must be held responsible for ignoring Auditor General’s guidelines and instructions made to turn around the loss making semi government institutions. This must be made law,” president Sirisena stressed.

“I would like to draw your attention to the correspondence the Finance Commission (FC) makes with me. The FC in letters sent to me talks about a Central Government. There is no Central Government or Provincial Governments. We have only a government and Provincial Councils. Since the time of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, I tried hard to compel the government to conduct a post review of the PC system, I failed. When I became President I tried once again though I was not the subject minister to carry out an analysis on PCS. Up to now, this has not happened,’ President Sirisena lamented.

A majority among the people are of the view that the PCS are a waste of public money and it has also created a political and social distortion which has affected the country badly. I think the FRS and ARS found in the public service are not applied in PCS. It is common that Chief Ministers collect goodies two to three years prior to the election like plastic vessels, school bags, furniture etc and keep them locked in a room of the Council. When elections come, he distributes them among voters. This is disadvantageous to the other candidates, President Sirisena stressed.

For instance as the report that probed the national carrier, Sri Lankan reveals, the permanent required cadre of the airline is about 3,000 in excess. A Minister comes in charge of Sri Lankan, increase the number of employees to 700 in a section while the required cadre is 500 before he leaves.

“We talk more often than not about a mountain of foreign loans. But I don’t think if we make the public and provincial service and statutory bodies, productive, efficient and refrain from waste and loss making. Sri Lanka must not obtain heavy loans from the World Bank, IMF or Asian Development Bank or any other global financial institutions, President Sirisena noted.

Singapore runs as an establishment and not as a government which has made much progress over the years in the economy, management and as financial and trade centre through improved productivity, efficiency in the highest order, preventing waste and corruption and of course through the new technology. For every tree in Singapore has been documented and counted and permission is necessary to cut even a branch of the tree, he said.