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| Wednesday, 24 March 2004 |
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Electioneering at public expense: some issues by R.K.H.M. Fernando, Former Director General, Public Finance In our country where the ruling political elite followed in tandem by their bureaucratic counterparts enjoy life in every sphere at public expense, the run up to a general election becomes a do or die or rather life and death struggle between the two broad categories of contestants, i.e. those trying to retain or remain in power and those trying to regain it.
An increasingly observed phenomenon herein is that with each general election, the cost of getting elected has been escalating and the ultimate costs have been at the expense of the Treasury, Corporations, State-owned Companies and other public bodies and rarely at the cost of the stake-holders of either side of the political divide. This is as a result of the use or rather the abuse of public resources in electioneering. This short article seeks to sum up how public resources are tapped for the purpose as against private resources the cost of which is also ultimately repaid in the form of political favours, in the form of tenders, liquor permits, concessionary privileges, public office, etc. Net cost The net cost to the nation in a general election, whether mandatory or snap is much more than the estimated amount of around one billion Rupees borne by the Elections Department, apart from a little above five million Rupees to be spent by the candidates at the rate of 50 cents per voter, and even what is actually spent by the candidates and their supporters. The indirect or hidden expenditure in the form of illegal use of State vehicles, buildings, equipment, appliances, stationery, State personnel; State media amount to several billions as amply described in some newspapers in the past few weeks. As much as election offences and violations are in both forms of commission and omission, the cost to the State and nation is in the form of direct losses through expenditure and indirect losses through loss of opportunity and government revenue. The disruption of community life through postponement of exams, disturbances to religious and social gatherings, staged traffic jams aimed at displaying conspicuous crowds spilling into roads, is tremendous as much as horrendous. Those in the seats of power have fleets of vehicles that can be used indiscriminately at no cost; Rest Houses of local authorities and the Urban Development Authority, the circuit bungalows of State corporations, auditoria under the charge of public institutions are reserved by those in authority for the full campaign period. Even when minimum charges are made, revenue through normal customers is lost. Consumption of liquor with no corkage but with many breakages unaccounted is the norm. The construction of stages, illuminations, musical shows to draw crowds are all through the utilization of captive resources. In seats of power One salutary feature in this scenario is that, immediately before the dissolution, the President appointed as minister for the portfolio, a Parliamentarian from the national list without a history or record of third grade politics. The current institutional mechanism for the prevention of losses to the public finances is through the operation of accountability via Accounting Officers. The secretaries being the Chief Accounting Officers directly in respect of the voted funds under the several Expenditure Heads and assets under the charge of respective Departments and indirectly in respect of the Corporations and other Institutions under their supervision are held accountable through the Auditor General to the Parliament. Those who have the public interest at heart will be delighted to learn that the President has already reminded these Statutory Trustees the need to preserve State assets from the marauding politicians during the election period. At the same time it has to be stated that the writer has somewhat doubts about the operation of this timely direction outside the area of control of the ruling party. But the enforcement of this time honoured, colonial legacy of the regime of Chief Accounting Officers and Accounting Officers has been in jeopardy since the present ruling party came into power as all Secretaries whether Cabinet or otherwise have been treated on same level; thus, group-wise supervision is in disarray. Damage Yet another machinery that can be exploited to ensure the safety and insulation of public assets during the election period is the Offences Against Public Property Act. The Act seeks to punish those who cause damage to public property. The Act which was almost confined to cases of damaging public property wilfully or negligently was till recently utilized to cases of damage to property and vehicles in accidents. It is encouraging to see the Act increasingly invoked to deal with cases of damage to official vehicles. Any losses to the public assets through wilful or negligent misuse or abuse of vehicles or other property can be prevented or curtailed by the enforcement of this Act by the police vigorously during the election campaign. The ingenious and blatant escape routes are openly resorted to by the lawless elements in the effective enforcement of this piece of legislation as seen in a recent incident where the damage to a state vehicle was estimated to fall below Rs. 25,000 in collusion with the repairers. If a start to be made in enforcing this Act for the protection of public assets, this election is an ideal opportunity! Fiscal policy The Fiscal Management (Responsibility) Act can also be utilized to prevent mismanagement of public resources in the run up to an election through the bench-marks it provides in monitoring fiscal policy. The provisions and stipulations imposed on the Secretary to the Minister of Finance to submit a report within three weeks of the proclamation of a general election, and for the Minister of Finance to give the information required for such a report within a week after such proclamation, if followed or enforced properly, will operate as a check against pre-election sprees of vote catching expenditure. This was the case in the last general election of 2001 which resulted in the negative growth rate unprecedented since independence, and on which the present rulers waxed eloquent during the last general election and the repetition of which was the declared intention of the said Act brought by the present rulers. But, lack of sanctions in the enforcement of the Act, will result in no benefits accruing to the nation in the very first general election since its enactment. This inadequacy became clear with the publication of the report under the Act which reveals bad fiscal management with a worsening budget deficit. Election laws The present election laws are inadequate to prevent those in authority over public resources from resorting to the abuse of every such resource to retain or regain political power. Without the full implementation of the Independent Election Commission, the Commissioner of Elections is helpless in the full enforcement of powers vested therein. Those having the interests of good governance at heart wish that the Commissioner will have the courage as much as unstinted co-operation of the law enforcing agencies to exercise at least the limited powers he has at present. Electioneering almost entirely at others' expense is a comparatively late development that gathered momentum with politicians becoming all powerful in every aspect of national life as politics expanded its role from policy making to the delivery of services by the government. The basic principle that power is a trust bestowed upon its holder was undermined with resources at the command of the government dwindling with recipients increasing, resulting in the holders of power wielding unfettered discretion in their expanded role. The proportional representation with preferential votes in large district level multi-member electorates made the election campaign more and more costly and expensive. The individual popularity of the candidate as well as caste and family based pocket boroughs became inadequate to reach wide expanses of territory in a district. Those who had money, business and trade connections, family reputation, and political mantle began to enjoy an edge over the others without such attributes, in grabbing preferences in an individually inaccessible electoral district. Enjoying ministers With ministers enjoying fleets of vehicles and their numbers increasing to cover almost the entirety of government party Parliamentarians, the caretaker ministers could use these vehicles in their election campaigns. The direction by the President to withdraw all vehicles from non-Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers is a step in right direction. Telephone facilities (fixed and cellular) are widely misused during the election period. Although the argument could have been made that no out payments were involved in this regard before the incorporation and subsequent privatisation of telecommunication services, at present, all these costs are borne out by the tax payers. Accommodation The Parliamentarians' quarters are continued to be occupied by the outgoing parliamentarians as metropolitan operational bases and centres of accommodation for outstation supporters. Requests for vacation of these quarters are continuously ignored but the rule should, in fairness, apply also to the Speaker and Opposition Leader of the former Parliament. How an incumbent of the latter post continued in the official bungalow after the dissolution and met the massive telephone bill on unauthorised calls is known only to a few. The primary cause of this blatant squandering of public resources for electioneering has been the acquiescent and condescending attitude of the political authorities towards the wrong doers in this field as the practice has become almost the norm. As politics has become a trade and a profession without any ethics to be followed in regaining and remaining in political power, the relevant costs too have become a cost of the very game. As criminals exploit preventive measures, punishments visited on them, loopholes in the system, etc., to further their criminal goals, the politicians use all the vicissitudes of their political life for the betterment of their career. Objection The oft-repeated objectives of cleansing the political landscape is only rhetoric and specific pledges to punish those involved in the abuse of public resources for electioneering made by those not in power are forgotten no sooner they come to power, realizing that it is now their chance. As investigations, procedures, explanations take time, the complainants find that they themselves are now in the same act and lose interest in further preventive action. The unfortunate few who are likely to get caught often cross over to the party in power and escape punishment. This has been the national experience in the past. In the present context, only a public outcry buttressed by the professional organisations to mount an appeal to the Commissioner of Elections, the Police Commission and the Election Monitors can create a formidable force against electioneering at public expense. |
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