Need of the hour: Fearless civil service in Lanka

After months of agitation for fertiliser, enduring long power cuts, and having to queue for basics such as diesel, petrol, gas and milk powder, we see the appointment of a new Governor to the Central Bank and Secretary to the Treasury as a relief and welcome move in the right direction.

The new duo after their appointments have confirmed that the assignments were accepted on the basis that there will be no political interference. The Treasury Secretary said the current crisis was not only predicted, but he had alerted the authorities of same. However no remedial action was taken. It appears that in the absence of regime change in the political authority the Governor and the secretary will suffer the same fate.

Thus, it is important that politicians should refrain from interfering with the professional decisions taken by the Governor and Treasury Secretary. The Governor said the basic principal was to ensure that expenditure did not exceed income. The Treasury Secretary, in turn, was emphatic that the Government should prioritise its expenditure and cited an example that if the needs were to purchase medicine on the one hand and carpet a road on the other, then, the former will obviously take priority over the latter.

As the Governor reiterated, expenditure should not exceed income to ensure prudent and proper governance. Notwithstanding the above, we are all aware, that fiscal policies introduced in 2019 soon after the regime change including steep tax cuts, were the primary reason for the loss of income for the Government. Why was this done? Was such fiscal change affected at the instance of mega earners who supported the regime change, ignoring professional advice?

The stark reality is that valuable income and foreign exchange have been recklessly spent at the instance of corrupt associates. This is the reason the people, especially the young are agitating, voicing that their future has been robbed.

It must be remembered that the political authority has violated the constitution and the constitutional rights of the citizens by depriving them of their basic needs. At this point, I must recogniae and highlight the following news items published in the Sunday Times on April 10, 2022

1) “Cabinet Ministry Secretaries call for sweeping reforms to revive the economy” stating that the Government should cut down the number of ministers, reduce their perks; vide page 1

2) “Excessive sugar imports cause dollar drain, consumers did not receive benefit of tax cuts – pyramid Wilmar’s multimillion sugar scam exposed by National Audit Office”; vide Page 1

3) “New CB Governor asked people to brace for more hardships; says economy can be turned around” - upward tax revisions, export promotion, curb money printing, reduce inflation, talks with IMF priority areas.” Further Central Bank would be independent, transparent and be truthful to the people; Vide Page 1

4) “Newly appointed CB Governor says he wants to fix the brakes, and stop the economy from crashing”; vide Page 4

These news items indicate that Ministry Secretaries could easily fix this current problem if they are only permitted to work with authority independently, without political interference.

So many suggestions, theories have been expressed by the bourgeois and the so- called constitutional experts. The immediate answer is to let the Ministry Secretaries take control, and fix the problem, suspending the political authority until elections are held in terms of the Constitution without tinkering with same, reserving at all times the rights to prosecute the politicians and their cohorts against their past corrupt deeds and actions. A strong civil service is what is needed like that in England, where we just witnessed on April 12 the fining of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer for their misdeeds.

All this can be effectively implemented if the rights of the various ministries and the rights of the people are continuously safeguarded from the actions of the irresponsible political authority by none other than the independent judiciary which is in place. Similarly, the obligations of said Ministries Secretaries should also be monitored and successfully enforced. An appeal made by a strong civil/ administrative service to our millions of expatriate Sri Lankans to remit their valuable foreign funds through our banking system will, no doubt, also have a positive response.

In short, let an efficient honest fearless team of Ministry Secretaries manage this administration in the immediate short term, free of political interference, to overcome the current impasse.