'Central Bank or decentralised Bank'

I refer to your article headlined "Central Bank fast becoming a rubber stamp" published in a recent 'Kussi Amma Sera' column in the Business Times.

As mentioned therein, it is quite true that our Central Bank is brought to the position of a rubber stamp.

In our Yahapalana Government, the subject of finance is handled by so many ministers, including the Prime Minister as well. No doubt, it is a complicated situation. The Finance Minister proper is left with only the subject of the preparation of the annual budget. It appears that the Central Bank is out of bounds for him. Most of the important functions and duties of the Central Bank are gradually being taken away from it. That is why I called it a decentralised bank.

I presume, one may still remember the fate of the 2015 Budget with so many new proposals submitted to Parliament by the Finance Minister. But what happened? At the third reading of the budget none of those proposals was there. Hacked and chopped, notwithstanding the fact, that he took four hours to deliver the budget speech only the two words 'Hon. Speaker' were left out at the end. Sarcastically or not, that is the opinion of the general public.

As it is, the subject of finance of the government has become more or less a pot of gruel prepaid with so many varieties of green leaves (KOLAKENDA HELIYAK). That is what Kussi Amma Sera says as she too is now fed up with what is happening in the country. According to her the gruel or rather the soup is already spoiled, because there were too many cooks in the process of the preparation.

After all, why should we have so many MPs and Ministers? I think it is quite sufficient to have 100 members of Parliament and 15 Cabinet Ministers, compared to the size and available resources of the country. Now it is quite a difficult task to take a count of not only the number of Ministries but also the number of Departments, Corporations, Boards, Councils and Institutions, etc established under these ministries.

The allocation of duties, functions and responsibilities to the ministers has also not been done methodically. For instance, take the case of the ministry of Higher Education and Highways. It is like coupling a donkey to a monkey. J. Kariyawasam Kottawa, Pannipitiya.