Running the CTB

Vinod Moonesinghe

When my father, the late Anil Moonesinghe (whose 85th birthday would have been today) became chairman of the CTB in 1970, he came already armed with the experience of being a Minister of Transport. He also had familiarity of the view from the other end, as a Trade Unionist and a manual worker. He was filled with enthusiasm for the capabilities of Sri Lankan workers, but he also had a very clear understanding of their limitations. His system of management balanced workers’ self-management with an iron discipline.

Former Transport Minister Anil Moonesinghe

A lifelong socialist, he drew on his knowledge of Yugoslav Workers’ Councils, as well of East German production incentive targets (norms). He was also inspired by the Italian Communist Party’s almost legendary administration of the city of Bologna - at one time the best-run city in Europe.

Foreign exchange

He had the benefit of the patronage of a wonderful Minister of Transport in Leslie Goonewardena, as well as the support of a body of committed socialists within the CTB ranks. Plus, of course, one of the best teams of technocrats ever assembled in Sri Lanka: engineers, managers, accountants and so on.

The problems that needed solving were manifold. The CTB transported over four million commuters every day, but had insufficient actually running buses - some of the buses dated from the 1940s, which had to be kept running by cannibalising other buses.

It was grossly overstaffed due to political jobbery, with about 10 employees to every bus (running or non-running). Revenue was low because of pilferage. This was a time of great economic stress, with the government seeking to reduce dependence on foreign loans, so foreign exchange was scarce.

The fundamental task of the CTB was to transport those millions of commuters on time, safely and comfortably - while not making too big an inroad into the national treasury.

My father attempted to solve these problems with a planned programme of expansion and modernisation, combined with import substitution and localisation of repair. The whole was rounded off with workers self-management and norm-based incentive schemes.

Local entrepreneurs

In each depot or functional unit in the CTB was an employees’ council, elected by secret ballot, which aided in the management. My father’s aim was ultimately to have half the board of directors elected from the employees’ councils; which, alas was not to be.

One of the first problems to be overcome was the monopoly on bus supply held by Ashok Leyland and Tata.

My father negotiated with C Itoh of Japan to supply Isuzu buses at cheaper prices. He also obtained Ikarus buses from Hungary. This enabled him to renegotiate the prices of the Indian buses which formed the backbone of the fleet. He also began to substitute local parts for imported ones, encouraging local entrepreneurs or producing in-house. His plan was ultimately to produce the buses in Sri Lanka, and by the time he left the CTB all the machinery was in place to do so. Only one example of a totally locally-made bus was manufactured, called Langama 1.

The CTB established regional docking stations, in which entire engine-gearbox units could be removed and sent to the Werahera workshops for overhaul; the units were immediately replaced at the docking stations themselves. As many repairs as possible were delegated to regional workshops.

By means such as these he was able to increase the proportion of running buses. Getting the best use of them was another matter. This is where incentive payments and flying squads came in, to ensure that the buses ran when and where needed.

The incentive payments helped reduce pilferage. So did his scheme for improving ticket machines using local know-how. Tips from bus conductors enabled his technical staff to come up with modifications to the existing ticket machines which made the well-nigh foolproof. A ticket machine workshop was set up at Etul Kotte.

Bus services were made to terminate at railway stations, so that commuters could with ease transfer from one mode to the other. Buses ran to a strict schedule, supervised by checkers.

My father believed in hands-on management. He and members of the Board routinely would, anonymously, go on inspection, riding the buses or waiting at bus halts - checking up on the checkers. And he never asked of the workers what he could not do himself. On one occasion he serviced eight buses in one day to prove that it was a reasonable target.

He also gave scope for technocrats to develop their skills. The CTB published a journal, ‘Transport Management’ to enable knowledge to be transferred among the higher-level employees.

All this was backed up with rigorous discipline, dealt out with neither fear nor favour. On one occasion he was called on to punish a party member caught stealing; this man had contributed immensely to the CTB by his money-saving suggestions. Nevertheless, my father had him removed from his post (he later found him employment elsewhere as a reward for his contributions). By such means my father was able to reduce the losses made by the CTB and convert it into a revenue generating corporation. The funds thus obtained were again ploughed back into infrastructure.

The single biggest investment was in the new Central Bus Station building in the Pettah. The station was to be in the form of concentric circles of bus stands, topped by several stories of shops and other facilities, together with a central high-rise tower, to contain a cinema, a hotel for outstations visitors and a rooftop restaurant. Alas it was never completed, much of the land being taken over to build the Goonesinghapura housing estate.

Unfortunately, the intellectual, managerial and technological infrastructure which was built up under his administration was allowed after 1977 to dissipate to nothing. It was a great pleasure to my father - who had been denied the Transport Minister’s post in 1994 - when in 2001 Transport Minister Dinesh Gunewardena revealed to him plans to revive the CTB, plans that did not come to fruition until after his death.