Divineguma Bill:
Major boost for participatory development
Dr Vijitha Nanayakkara
In any liberal democracy a constructive dialogue on nationally
important policies is imperative. Opposing views, no matter whether they
are positive or negative in character pave the way to arrive at the
right decisions leading to good governance.
Based on this objective, the Divineguma Bill proposes to amalgamate a
number of organizations, namely the Samurdhi Authority, the Udarata
Development Authority, the Southern Development Authority, the
Department of Peasant Rehabilitation and the Samurdhi Commissioner
General's Department. It is intended to create a just and fair society
through the process of development and alleviating poverty.
The institutions cited above come under the purview of the Economic
Development Ministry and they were set up with the view of accelerating
economic development of the country, particularly improving the living
conditions of the economically disadvantaged.
Multiple institutions operate separately with similar goals and
objectives in many third world countries including Sri Lanka. This
results in the repeat of the same activity in a selected village by
different non-governmental organizations which may lead to wastage of
limited resources available for disposal. It is estimated that
approximately 10% to 20% waste of resources is likely in many poverty
alleviating programmes and development projects in the third world.
Given the circumstances, it is time to amalgamate institutions with
similar goals and objectives on a carefully crafted plan for a common
goal.
The Samurdhi Authority is the biggest organization which will be
amalgamated with other similar institutions under the Divineguma Bill.
The workforce of the Samurdhi Authority alone exceeds 25,000 at present.
This authority has been functioning over the last 15 years and when the
Samurdhi authority was first established in 1995, the percentage of
families living with poverty was in the range of 25% to 30%, which is
currently around 7%.
According to the new Millennium Development Goals, we will have to
achieve the target of 13% families living with poverty by 2015.
Surprisingly enough, we have already achieved this target by recording
7% by 2012. However, programmes should be put in place to absorb people
who are coming out of poverty to contribute to the national development
through a strategically designed development plan. Therefore, it is time
to reformulate the role played by the Samurdhi authority over the years
to reflect the current needs of the country. The Divineguma Bill aims at
establishing a separate department named the Department of Divineguma
Development (DDD) to fulfill the tasks cited above. The national
policies should be reformulated with the view of strengthening the
people through various income generating economic activities, not
encouraging food subsidies or food rations so that people will have
every confidence in making their own living. The ultimate aim of the DDD
is to create a situation where people can stand on their own feet,
leaving aside the dependent mentality on food subsidies forever.
Changes in development programmes, approaches and policies are vital
and they need to be adjusted to fit into the international experiences.
With the collapse of the International Financial Market in 2008/2009,
changes in new liberal economic policies were advocated by many
including international development organizations. The role of the
government in the pursuit of economic development is determined by the
specific condition of the country. Currently, many international
development organizations and some western think tanks raise the issues
of 'human rights', 'transparency', 'integrity' and 'good governance' but
surprisingly, the application of these concepts seems to be different in
the developed countries from the third world. Questions need to be asked
about the loyalty of some intellectuals who are not prepared to question
the 'transparency' and 'integrity' of these western organizations who
maintain double standards when it comes to practice. We need to prepare
ourselves to discard some Western ideologies and disregard some Western
expertise and consultancies made by Western think tanks and instead,
focus on domestic development strategies.
The clientele of the DDD under the Divineguma Bill is the socially
and the economically disadvantaged across the country. It is essential
to secure their contribution to national economy through a proper
development approach at grassroots level. Through such an approach, the
empowerment of the rural poor and capacity building are important.
Participatory development approach has been in place in many countries
for a number of years and it seemed to be very effective in achieving
certain development goals particularly in the rural context. This Bill
proposes to follow this approach whenever needed in our rural
development programme. It is clear therefore that the structure of the
DDD is formed around community based organizations and these
organizations are directly linked to the DDD.
It will be a new experience in the history of government departments
to mobilize human resources for meaningful national development through
the encouragement of financial savings and creating micro level
financial networks for investment projects. The Department of Divineguma
Development is not merely a bureaucratic organization where executive
powers channeled through the top to the bottom but an organization where
peoples' participation is ensured from the bottom to the top. Creating
an institutional framework to maintain the right balance between the
departmental structure and the structure of the community organizations
is the most important aspect of this department. Maintaining the balance
between the supervision and monitoring by the department and the
supervision and monitoring by community organizations creates a
situation where transparency of many development projects can be
properly ensured.
While the functions of any department established in a ministry span
across the country serving all citizens, its actions would not interfere
with the regional political authority and the existing institutional
framework at regional level. The aims, objectives, powers and functions
of the proposed Department of Divineguma Development have been clearly
specified in the Divineguma Bill. The improvement of the main livelihood
of people, families and groups is the main objective of the proposed
department. The Bill has clearly identified the necessary actions
required for fulfillment of this main objective of the department.
Nevertheless, powers and functions of other departments are not included
in the proposed Bill. The government has established many departments
and the scope of these departments has been identified to serve the
entire population.
Accordingly, all departments are functioning to fulfill a common
objective of the nation. The gap between two departments is not like a
definite boundary between two plots of land. Mutual collaboration among
different departments and other institutions of the state does not
necessarily mean that they interfere with the activities of other
departments or institutions. It is therefore very difficult to ascertain
how the functions of the DDD affect other departments. How does the
provision of electricity supply affect other departments or how do the
functions of the police department affect other department and the list
goes on. The important point to consider, leaving aside such a painful
scrutiny is to work together to fulfill the common objectives of the
government, collaborating with all departmental authorities and
institutions across the country.
The DDD is not an institution set up for executive administrative
functions nor is it in conflict with powers and functions of any
regional administrative apparatus established under the 13th Amendment
to the Constitution.
Some critics allege that the proposed department might intervene in
the existing administrative structure by operating its project
activities establishing new project administrative zones under deputy
directors. Creating a number of administrative zones under the DDD to
ease administrative problems would not affect the existing, normal
administrative set up of the country.
It is within the powers vested in the minister to enact regulations
and give orders to the heads of the departments of any ministry. In
order to fulfill the objectives of any Bill, it is essential to have
necessary powers vested in the minister to enact regulations and to pass
orders. For example, it is possible to establish community based
organizations under the proposed Bill, but the details of the ordinance
or constitutional frameworks for these community organizations are not
seen in the Bill. The details of constitutional frameworks will be
presented in supplementary regulations that will be put in place in
future by the minister.
Community based organizations would be able to function independently
but when they are assigned to implement government projects or use
government funds, they are inevitably subject to supervision and
monitoring by the department. It is necessary to monitor all department
projects to see whether things are heading in the right direction,
particularly to maintain the financial discipline of all projects. All
projects will be audited by government auditors so that the department
needs some kind of authority over supervision and monitoring. Through
strict monitoring and supervision, it is expected that the government
funds will be effectively and properly utilized for socio-economic
development of the country. The Divineguma Development Fund (DDF) is a
departmental fund which will be established by the minister under the
clause 35(1) of Divineguma Bill. As the head the department, the
subject/line minister should have the power and authority to oversee the
smooth functioning of the fund. There is no room for any
misappropriation of the DDF since all financial dealings associated with
the fund are subject to the government auditing.
With the powers vested in the DDD, it is expected to conduct
lotteries with the assistance of the National Lotteries Board to boost
the DDF. Previously, under the Samurdhi Act, a lottery was conducted by
the Samurdhi Authority. By the same token, the 'Sevana' lottery was
introduced by the Premadasa administration for housing development. It
is expected to minimize the inequality of income distribution through
various poverty alleviating projects. It is also totally justifiable to
conduct a Divineguma Lottery by the DDD to strengthen the Divineguma
Fund. There would not be any hindrance to conduct and maintain similar
lotteries for the benefit of the above fund.
The main objective of the Divineguma Community Based Banks is to
create micro-financial banking networks at regional level. It is the
divineguma beneficiaries who save money in these community banks and
receive benefits as well. It is important to note that these Divineguma
Community Banks are not commercial banks in conventional sense and only
those who are members of Divineguma Community Based Organizations are
eligible to use them. The target group of these banks or the main
clientele is those who are excluded from conventional commercial banks
for a number of reasons. Individual or group based loans will be
available for those who are disadvantaged by numerous rules and
regulations of commercial banks. Under the Divineguma Bill, the DDD is
empowered to establish these non-commercial rural banks with the purpose
of providing much needed banking facilities for the rural poor in
particular.
It was the same policy under which the Samurdhi Banks were
established in the 1990s. After the discussion with the Central Bank of
Sri Lanka, it was agreed that the regulations and clauses of the Banking
Act in 1988, No 30 and 2D11, No 42 under the Financial Enterprises Act
would not affect the Divineguma Community Banks. However, these
micro-financial banking network will be monitored and supervised by a
committee of eminent people including the representatives from Ministry
of Finance and the Central Bank, director of the Divineguma Community
Banks and the Director-General of DDD. Thus, financial activities will
also be audited by the government auditors. It is essential to have a
community banking system of this nature for the benefit of rural people
who are marginalized by the 'big banks'.
Under the Divineguma Bill, restrictions will be imposed on collecting
personal information from the poor and selling them for financial gains.
At the same time, the information collector who collects personal
information is liable to safeguard and maintain the confidentiality of
all personal information. The DDD should also be exemplary in this
regard. This does not affect the transparency of the department and
there is no obstacle whatsoever to question and test the transparency of
activities of the department.
The writer is the Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Sri Lanka
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