Finding a limit to swindling

Wasantha Priya Ramanayake - Translated by A. A. M. Nizam

Do you know? Rs. 45 million has been spent for construction of a village road. These guys are eating in a funny way, no! We even don’t find a rope to hang but these guys are enjoying Royal Weddings!

Don’t tell lies man! You only see faults in the government. The second person responded.

It is not a lie, it is the truth. Don’t you see newspapers? The first person acting like a village ‘Reuter’ did not stop his argument. He presented things defending his own views.

“There, a report has been presented to the Parliament with facts and figures. You can’t lie to the Parliament, no! And the other thing if a question is raised in Parliament they have to respond with facts, no! “

“Is it true?” The second person conceded in a manner that he has accepted the story.

“What man? These are our money! Can a government remain silent allowing persons to swindle funds like this? These fellows are robbing like thinking that the world will end tomorrow! Does the government power means taking licence to rob?

Village stalls

This is how a discussion between two persons in a village stall ended recently. Due to the yielding received from the second person, the first person went on and on saying what he wanted to say. The first person was an anti-government person. The second was a person sympathetic to the government. He is innocent. They become innocent in front of allegations like this.

They do not like their government getting criticized like this in front of village stalls. But they cannot do anything. They hold the view that this government should be safeguarded even by silently cursing the parents of these damn robbers. They still think in this manner. It is because of this government that we now walk on the roads freely without any fear.

It is because of the President. Therefore this government is good for us despite certain swindling and even if we do not get anything. “The President is better than everything”. The government is also good, similar to the President. But if things continued to go this way, and were not properly controlled the President’s popularity may also slide down. There are supporters of the Alliance who state like this.

But we do not know the truth about the road of the Wariyapola area. The news about spending over Rs. 45 million for a renovation of a road in the Wariyapola came to be known through a written response presented to a question raised by the Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera. There is nothing that can be done by Dayasiri as well.

He may have not expected a response like this. The response was like a ‘piece of fried fish’ received by the Opposition after a long time. They thought that this response recorded a fine example relating to the waste and mismanagement of this government.

Unnecessary allegation

“Here, how these guys swindle!” This news became a fine topic for the Opposition who were waiting to hit at the government with any weapon that comes into their hands. There is no tradition in this country that the Opposition probe into things to find the truth about information they receive that are unfavourable to the government. Generally, this is how it happened even when this government was in the Opposition. Some of the allegations presented against the Ranil’s government were mere fabrications. Ranil is unable to come out of these allegations even today. ‘Elephant-Tiger Pact’ was one such fabrication.

It was a fine creation by the Media Project of the People’s Alliance. Mangala Samaraweera who was in charge of destroying the image of Ranil in this manner is now in the Opposition very much close to Ranil. He now says that he did so because Ranil is an efficient person. But these petty talks cannot pull out Ranil. It is not possible to reverse even a lie when it had taken firm root in society.

The Wariyapola road incident is also similar to this. Neither the government nor the Opposition made a critical analysis of whether such a thing could happen. But the facts were revealed through an investigation made by a Sunday newspaper. As per the true story the response given is a fabrication. In the typing of the response presented to Parliament the ‘dot’ depicting the decimal has been placed incorrectly. Therefore 4.5 million in the process of typing has become 45 million. Due to presentation of matters without a re-check and cross check the unnecessary allegation being levelled against the government cannot be measured in monetary values.

Third World developing countries

The clarification presented about this was a just a murmur. If the relevant state institution cannot make a clarification that can be felt by the whole country others cannot have an urge in that regard.

It seems that the responsible officers have not made a thorough cross check about the expenses relating to the road and the figures prior to it being presented in the Parliament. Some institutions just carry on as it goes by. Some others think that because of the President’s virtue everything is going on smoothly.

The actual expenditure of the Wariyapola road was less than the estimated allocation. But the expenditure of some other roads and projects are not being carried out in this manner. The whole country is aware that there are some stories related to them.

In Third World developing countries such as Sri Lanka the development progresses with waste, malpractices and cheating. When the project is expeditious the cheating also becomes expeditious. In the planning of the accelerated Mahaweli project this factor had even been accepted by the World Bank. Therefore, it is stated that they unofficially allocated a margin of 30 percent for waste and malpractices.

The alternative programme proposed instead was to get the participation of small contractors and the people of the relevant areas of the project so that 30 percent could be distributed to them. Therefore, there were houses being constructed in the relevant areas utilizing Mahaweli cement and Mahaweli sand and stones. Mahaweli fuel powered the vehicles in the areas.

This was another way of development getting penetrated to the villages. The change that took place when Chandrika’s government came to power was explained in the village colloquial terms as follows:

“Sir, it is true that UNP guys robbed, they earned but we also got something. We got ample O.T. and Bata. It is from those we constructed these houses. Now these guys are eating alone and we do not get anything. Therefore those robbers are better than these robbers”.

A government cannot control 100 percent of all these things. But it can reduce the level of swindling. The ‘something’ mentioned in the village terms could be allowed to flow into the village level instead of getting it into the hands of one or two. The village-man will not go to hoist flags worth one lakh from that but he would get a nice house constructed. Or else he would repair an old house. Otherwise the term, “Those guys eat alone and we get nothing” will become firmly established.

Political tradition

There is a reply to all this in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ itself. It is supervision by a Monitoring Commission. It says, “The Commission will be responsible to ensure that annual targets of action plans are met, annual progress reviews are done and any remedial measures taken pertaining to any setbacks” (Extract from Mahinda Chinthana). But this is what the government is not doing. It seems that this government has not even thought of establishing the Monitoring Commission. Also it seems that even the shortcomings and malpractices of the projects being carried out throughout the country being revealed by the media are not being critically investigated.

However, it seems that all are involved in a project of saving their skins. But what the people say is, “Dear President we are still with you, we need you, but be cautious of people around you who only touch the pooja wattiya and who do not even respond to any criticism of the government.” Otherwise, after some time, due to the executive power culture of the President under the constitution, the Opposition will credit all shortcomings and malpractices to the account of the President. It is a crime. But it is the existing political tradition.