Corruption blocks development, economic progress, says Premier

by E. Weerapperuma

Corruption is one of the major stumbling blocks in the path to development and economic progress. It moves investment away from productive activities. It leads to a failure of public policies. It makes a mockery of all that is fair and just in social and political life, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse said.

Addressing the launching of the UNDP funded Project to Strengthen the Capacity of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption at the BMICH, Rajapakse said one of the principal objectives of the project was to improve the laws and procedures to detect, investigate and adjudicate cases of bribery or corruption.

The historical literature of Asia - especially of India and China, provides plenty of insights on the success and failure of different types of organisational reforms, aimed at combating the corrupt behaviour of public officials by rigorously imposing systems of inspection, penalties and rewards, directed at changing the behaviour patterns of such officials, the Prime Minister said.

He said the experience is that the strengthening of such organisational reforms is very important, but not sufficient by itself to control the challenge of bribery and corruption.

The Prime Minister said that one other aim of the project was to create awareness among citizens about corruption and its effects, their responsibility to act as a group against bribery and corruption.

"Your aim is to create among all stakeholders, politicians, media, businessmen, public officials, judiciary, police and the public at large, a strong awareness of the need to `act according to established rules' and not in terms of `private gain or profit', in all fields of public interaction," he said.

Rajapakse said the ancient wisdom applied to the challenge of corruption tells, that it was not only personal profits and gains that moved people to act in specific ways.

"Values and norms, for example the norm of `always acting according to established rules of behaviour', could also drive people to act in specific ways. Creating an awareness of the need for value-led behaviour among all stakeholders in the crusade against corruption is therefore important," he said.

"It is precisely here that we have a special lesson to learn from the experience of most countries of the modern world. In the longer run, a culture of`acting according to established rules' can sustain itself against its `opposite form', the culture of `acting for personal profit and gain', only in the behaviour environment of a true democracy.

"It can sustain itself only where there is a wide distribution, rather than a concentration of economic and political power, the hallmark of a living democracy," the Prime Minister said.

The economic, social and political checks and balances of a true democracy constrain the occurrence of bribery and corruption. They serve to checkmate behaviour that is motivated by personal gain and profit. They function in a way that makes it impossible for people to act, other than in terms of established rules of behaviour. In such a society, corruption will be more the exception than the rule, he said.

"Let us therefore embark on a national crusade against corruption. Let us guide our polity and economy in a direction in which we achieve a wide distribution of political and economic power: An environment in which all stakeholders have no option but to act according to established rules: A society in which the formal institutions of a democracy are strong,and this includes Parliament, the judiciary, the media, the police, the public service, and of course the commission to investigate allegations of bribery or corruption. The project launched would strengthen this endeavour and we support it," the Prime Minister said.

A message by UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was read out by Kalutara District UNP MP Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Constitutional Reforms and National Integration Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara, UNDP Resident Representative Miguel Bermeo, Programme Analyst Dr. Fredric Abeyrathne, CIABOC Chairman Justice Ameer Ismail, Director General, CIABOC Piyasena Ranasinghe and National Project Coordinator, UNDP Project, Chamidry Saparamadu also spoke.