Seminal influence on policy-planning

This week’s reminiscences feature Dr. Lloyd Fernando, a distinguished public servant who served as Director General of National Planning and subsequently as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Policy Planning and Implementation. After his premature retirement from Public Service in 1993, he was appointed Alternate Executive Director at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).

He also acted as the chairman of the Marga Institute for five years. Presently he serves as the Programme Director- Public Policy at the Postgraduate Institute of Management, Sri Jayewardenepura University.

“I was born and lived in Dehiwela and our ancestral home was also in Dehiwela. My father was an accountant, but he worked in many places. My mother, like my father was very liberal. I had a very carefree childhood. We were very close to the Dehiwala church - St. Mary’s Church. I had a Christian background. However, I didn’t remain a Christian throughout. At about 16 or 17 I started moving away from religion. If you ask me what my philosophy in life is, it is very Buddhistic. But I can’t consider myself a total Buddhist. I don’t go to temple and pray. I go to the temple with the family occasionally.”

Role model

He studied at St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya, which had a very liberal environment at the time. “At St Peter’s, right throughout I was influenced by Father Marcelline Jayakody. He was very much in love with Rabindranath Tagore’s culture. He had been to Shanthinikethan. He was the famous lyricist who became popular after the film Rekhava. In school I was a carefree guy, I was not a good student that way. In fact once I failed. I was good in English because I learnt it on the playing field - playing cricket and doing athletics.

St. Peter’s was at that time very much multi-cultural. Apart from the Sinhalese there were quite a number of Tamils and Burghers. Actually at that time it was dominated by Burghers. So we needed to communicate with each other in English. And that gave me a very liberal outlook on life. I was never parochial when it came to race, religion and caste. To me it didn’t matter. What mattered is the good qualities of a person; sincerity and truthfulness, which was inculcated in me by my parents. My father was not an outstanding man but he was a good man and an honest man so he was a role model for me.”

Cultural renaissance

Fernando recalled that there was a cultural renaissance in Sri Lanka with S.W.R. D Bandaranaiake coming to power. St. Peter’s was one of the very first schools to establish a cultural centre, under Father Marcelline Jayakody. There we were treated to good quality Sinhala music and Indian Classical Music. “I was also influenced by Father Mervyn Weerakoddy. He was called the 'Jazz boy'; he was into Western Music and eventually became the Rector of St. Peter’s. His influence was mostly along Western culture. We were exposed to operas and neo-politan music. I was part of the college choir and considered a tenor.”

According to Lloyd, there was always a rebel within him and he loved to take risks in life and look for new adventures. After his secondary education, he joined the Standard Chartered Bank in Colombo and passed some banking examinations.

He was 19 or 20 years at that time. While working in the bank, he also got involved in left-oriented trade union work there. He was in the working committee of the union. “The management wanted me to give it up because I was going to be promoted to the executive level, which I refused. With my socialist orientation, I found that my banking career was at stake.” It was probably this rebellious attitude that prompted him to accept a scholarship to join the Lumumba University in Moscow.

Public service

After returning from Moscow with a Masters Degree in Economics, he joined the Ministry of Planning as a Planning Officer when Dr. Gamini Corea was the Secretary to that Ministry. In 1971 he went to the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom for his doctoral studies. After obtaining his doctorate in Economics, he continued his work in the Ministry of Planning until his premature retirement from public service in 1993.

As mentioned earlier, Lloyd has had diverse professional experiences but due to the lack of space, we cannot include everything. He was asked to highlight some of the contributions he made at the Ministry of Planning:

'I feel that the most important period of my professional career was during 1982-93, in particular, in the first phase up to 1988, when I was on a learning curve helped by my superiors, Mr. Ronnie de Mel as Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr W.M. Tilakaratna, Secretary Finance, Mr. Baku Mahadeva, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Finance and Cabinet Secretary, Mr. G.V. P. Samarasinghe, a confidant of President J. R. Jayewardene.

‘I also learnt a lot from my peers as well as from junior colleagues who worked under my supervision. I had the opportunity of making a significant contribution to policy making in three specific areas during this period. Firstly as the Secretary, Committee of Development Secretaries, in my capacity as Director National Planning. Secondly in establishing the Administrative Reforms Committee, chaired by Mr. Shelton Wanasinghe. Thirdly in setting up the Institute of Policy Studies.

New projects and programmes

'The Committee of Development Secretaries was a powerful policy making body, chaired by Cabinet Secretary, Mr. G.V. P. Samarasinghe, which met every week on Tuesdays, while the Cabinet met on Wednesdays. It had tremendous influence on Cabinet deliberations on development policy related matters. In fact, in most cases, particularly relating to new projects and programmes, the Cabinet rejected discussion unless they were first discussed at the Committee of Development Secretaries (CDS). I exercised significant control over the deliberations, as well as follow up, as I prepared the agenda and the Minutes.

'What is significant is that I was able to use the opportunity for collective decision making by Secretaries, which tremendously helped inter-ministerial coordination and to bring discipline into the allocation of government resources for development projects. All project proposals emanating from various ministries had to be first included in the Public Investment Programme that was prepared by the National Planning Department to receive funding from the Government Budget.

'The second area in which I had the opportunity of initiating a very crucial structural change process was administrative reforms,which unfortunately is yet to take off the ground in a systematic manner. It was Mr. Ronnie de Mel who helped me and managed to convince a strangely reluctant President Jayewardene to appoint a Committee to examine all the issues relating to public service productivity and make recommendations for improvement.

‘The Committee chaired by Mr. Shelton Wanasinghe published in 1987 ten volumes containing far reaching recommendations, which are yet valid. If implemented, not in bits and pieces as has been done in the past, but systematically, there could be a significant impact on public service productivity, which is crucial for the realization of the goals set out in the Mahinda Chinthana.

Independent think tank

‘Setting up the Institute of Policy Studies was a challenge. Firstly it had to be funded. Secondly, it had to operate as an independent think tank which could provide unbiased information, analysis and recommendations on policy issues which cannot be handled by government agencies. I was tremendously encouraged and assisted in this matter by Mr. Ronnie de Mel. In fact, he took me to Seoul, Dhaka and finally to the Hague to study similar institutes. Finally, the Dutch government agreed to fund it on the assurance that it will be allowed to operate without political and bureaucratic interference.

‘Making it an independent think tank was difficult since some powerful ministers wanted it brought under the Cabinet Office. But Mr. de Mel was able to meet those challenges. It is with great satisfaction that I observe today that the IPS is performing a very useful role in policy analysis. Yet, at the same time, it is unfortunate that its capacity is not being fully utilized by the government’.

Finally, when asked for his views on the country’s economic prospects, particularly in realizing the goals of the Mahinda Chinthana, Fernando said that everything depends on the government’s ability to encourage and employ professionalism in the public service.