COPE, a vital safeguard against corruption - Prof Wijesinha

Waruna Padmasiri

The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) should not just be about tinkering with one or two cases and making one off exposures, Presidential Advisor on Reconciliation and MP Prof Rajiva Wijesinha said.

Institutions like COPE are vital to address systemic issues, establish procedural safeguards to minimize corruption and wastage and maximize value for money where public funds are involved, he said.

He expressed these views at a discussion.

It was organized by Transparency International titled ‘COPE exposures and beyond’. Presidential Counsel and UNP Parliamentarian Wijedasa Rajapaksa and Prof A D V de S Indraratna were the other panelists at the discussion.

Congratulating Senior Minister and COPE chairman D E W Gunasekera for his determination to table a comprehensive report on schedule, Wijesinha said that for the first time in history, the expenses of 229 public enterprises were scrutinized in a single report.

In all previous reports, only 30-40 institutions were reviewed annually. He said that the committee was able to achieve this due to the establishment of subcommittees to share the workload, breaking down large issues into smaller ones.

Prof Wijesinha made the observation that the ethnic issue should also be approached in a similar manner following the principle of subsidiarity, with inclusiveness and consensus receiving priority over confrontation and corrosive criticism.

Wijesinha said that a series of eight articles published in a daily newspaper in 2011 on good governance met with deafening silence. It is thus questionable how genuinely these organizations want to engage in real discussions.

Questioning the genuineness of organizations including that of Transparency International about their intention to enhance good governance, he said that the real interest seems to be at pointing fingers and scoring brownie points with their respective audiences.

“One of the biggest obstacles in our system to achieving progress on this front is corrosive criticism, the confrontational attitude, the finger pointing and name calling.”

Wijesinha said that this approach has got us nowhere. Rajapaksa said that committees like COPE help the government. “It exposes bad management, wastage of public money and corruption. It provides an opportunity for the government to take corrective measures.”