Dr Sudath Gunasekara
Definitely one doesn’t need to be a
financial or an economic wizard or a John Keynes to un-mess this mess that has
emerged as a direct result of mismanagement of the nation’s economy by all
those who were in charge of Governance in this country, since 1977. What you
need is only common sense and the guts to take a decision do it. Therefore the
following set of proposals is listed here for the consideration and immediate
action by the Government.”Lindata wetunu
miniha linkatenma goda enta one’ is the most appropriate adage I can quote
here. This mess is nothing but a collective mess created by our own
politicians. Therefore the onerous of taking the full responsibility for this
national crime as well as finding a suitable remedy for the malady, they
themselves have jointly created, also falls definitely on all their heads,
including those who are dead and gone to hell.
The present government must take
these decisions immediately before the situation become worse that might lead
even to a civil war against it, going by the way how things are already getting
out of control around the country. A stitch in time saves nine. But in doing so
I must warn the government that it has to completely forget about the vote fever,
because it is your responsibility and unbounded duty by the nation at this
critical time.
35 very
important steps that have to be taken immediately to ease the present crisis.
1 Stop all extravagant and wasteful expenses
of the government
2 Ban the import of all luxury and
non-essential goods
3 Increase the prices of local
products to encourage local production
4 Remove extra perks to all
politicians and public Servants (It is said that 85% of national income is
spent on maintaining politicians and public servants supposed to be the highest
per-man ratio in the world)
5 Stop all state tamasas and useless
political functions for image building and meetings of public servants to the
bare minimum limiting them to the most essentials.
6 Close down all Governors Offices
and allow the Government Agents and Divisional AGAA and Grama Seva Niladharis
to run the Administration and Coordination of development in their Districts,
Divisions and Graama Niladhari Units
7 Close down the 9 Provincial
Councils epidemic permanently now that they have ceased to function almost for
the past 5 years without any disruption of day to day to governance of the
country. Attaché public servants displaced as a result to suitable Government
offices in the districts
- Use the PG buildings to
house public offices presently housed on rented out buildings.
- And transfer the functions done by the PCC to
the GAA’s and AGAA’s offices and the respective line Ministry sub-offices in
the Districts so that the smooth delivery of services to people will continue
uninterrupted.
8 Scrap all superfluous government
institutions such as mushroom Ministries, Departments and statutory bodies created
to provide jobs for supporters of politicians
9 Reduce the number of Ministers and
Ministries to 15 and appoint a Minister and a Deputy under him to run each
Ministry instead of having 70 different Ministries, 30 Cabinet and 40 State Ministers, (as if the Cabinet
Ministers are not Ministers of the Sri Lankan State at present) in this small
country just to provide employment for a set of unproductive Politicians at
high cost just to keep them satisfied with no substantive contribution to the
country but has only increased duplication, waste, corruption, confusion, inefficiency
and rivalry among them. This move will drastically reduce the number of wasteful
institutions, excess officials, waste and corruption and also reduce hundreds
of government institutions that waste billions of public funds with no
substantive contribution to the country but making us a nation of beggars.
10 Close down all the Embassies and
Consular Offices of smaller countries and ask the nearest Embassy to overlook
them.
11 Close down all Pradeiya Sabhas
(mere duplicates of Provincial Councils) and go back to the former VC system
and allocate PS buildings to line departments working in the areas, and assign
the present Members to their respective Village Council areas to work under the
District Commissioners of Local Government
12 Stop payments for all officials
for attending meetings, as they are only part of their official duties
13Limit the number of vehicles and
personal staff to Ministers and Deputies including security
14 Withdraw official vehicles from
all public officers and let all public servants to have their own vehicles to
do their official travelling and pay a commuted allowance and mileage for
travelling out of duty stations on official duties. Provide them with a loan to
buy a vehicle like in the past for which the Govt need not provide drivers or
fuel. It is interesting to note that even in America, whhic is supposed to be
the richest country in the world no politician or public servant is given
official vehicles, drivers or fuel and they have to pay even for parking in the
parking lots.
15 Never renew the duty free Vehicle
system to anybody including politicians and public servants. However the
Government may have a system of duty free system of vehicles, machinery and raw
material etc under strict and close supervision for agricultural and Industrial
sector to promote development in those sectors.
16 Let the Public Servants run the
Ministries under the general supervision of the respective Ministry
Secretaries. Do away with the present practice of providing a band of personal
staff that virtually run the Ministries today making it a mockery and a mere
political party office killing the spirit and the essence of an impartial
public service. Provide only a private Secretary.
17 Stop providing houses for
Politicians in Colombo. Instead provide them with a common place, like in the
past (Sravasti) for them to stay when they come to Colombo on duty for the 8
days they are expected to attend so that they will be compelled to live in
their electorates for the rest of the month.
Transactions
in Embassies
18 Get the Diplomats to attend to all
government to Government business and cut down all unnecessary foreign travel
for politicians except under very special situations
The need to
have the Supply and Cadre Division in the Treasury reactivated and strictly
complied with its rules and regulations
19 Get the Treasury to have fixed
cadre for all Ministries and Government Departments and statutory bodies and
corporations that should not be exceeded without the prior approval of the
Treasury to expenditure under treasury control and to stop packing public
institutions with unqualified political appointees
20 Remove all excess staff of all
public institutions as early as possible after a quick survey by the Supply and
Cadre Division.
21 Give all Government institutions
daily, monthly and annual targets to ensure that every person does a quantum of
work for the money he/she is paid and hold the heads of the Divisions responsible
for running those institutions efficiently and profitably
Payment of fabulous
salaries for certain public Sector employees
22 Stop all fabulous salary payments
made to some people Like the Chairman of Air Lanka for example which was
reported in the press few days ago as Rs 32 lahks a month.
Recovery
of CB scan money
23Take immediate action to recover
money robed from the CB and confiscate the properties of all found guilty in
addition to other punishments under law.
24 Entrust Administration to
professional public servants and stop politicians from meddling with day to day
Administration of Government institutions and thereby disrupting smooth
governance of the country.
25 Also close down Regional and
Divisional offices of Government Departments and corporations etc opened in the
recent past just to recruit more people to public Service as a fashion without
considering the ramifications involved in public spending with no parallel
improvement in the delivery of public services.
National Austerity
Year
26 Declare a national Austerity year
and Agricultural Production year and give top priority for self-sufficiency and
export development in the agricultural sector.
Remove all
duel citizens from Parliament
27 Remove all Ministers and MPP who
are dual citizens both in the Govt and the opposition in Parliament immediately
as they are persons with divided allegiance and keep those places vacant until
a general election
Inquire in to assets of MPP in Parliament form
1977
28 Initiate actions to Identify
Politicians who have been in Parliament from 1970 and investigate their assets
at the time of joining and the present and confiscate all wealth proved had
been illegally a)amazed and remove the civil right of those found guilty for
life
Defeated
Politicians holding public positions
29 Remove all defeated and ex-politicians
holding appointments as Diplomatas, and any other post at Home like Chairmen of
state institutions and replace them with professional men who can do those jobs
to increase efficiency and profit.
The need for a vigorous national food Production Drive
30 Commence a vigorous National food
Production Drive in the agricultural and livestock sectors with a full gear of
the Government like loans, implements, fertilizer, guaranteed prices and
extension services, storage and marketing facilities for domestic and export
market with incentives like tax concessions to be followed up with a staggered
import ban on all items on all Agricultural an dallied products.
Reduce the
number of politicians and public servants in the country
31 I have found that the number of
Politicians and public servants has undergone a tremendous increase since 1977
due to increasing the number of public institutions and multiplying
administrative divisions like GS and Local Government units. As a result it has
been reported that today there is one politician for every 3232 persons and one
public servant for every 16 people in this country and 85 % of annual public
revenue is spent on the upkeep of politicians and public servants. This I think
is the highest figure for any country in the world. In addition to this curse,
is the very high expenditure on social welfare, like health, education and
public relief that has to be met with the balance 15 %. No wonder the country’s
economy has fallen to this level.
Reduce the
extremely high number of Public holidays for any country in the world as it we
are living in the Aalakamandaava.
32 Reduce the extremely high number
of Public holidays to internationally accepted average of 12 per year to increase
the number of man days that could be gainfully used for development
For example you can use the following
model
National Holidays
1April 13th and 14th
Sinhala New Year day 2days
2 Vesak Poya 2
days
3 Republic Day May 22 1
day
4 Poson Poya Jatika dinaya 1 day
5 National heroes Day (has to be
decided) 1 Day (May 9) LTTE Defeat
Optional Public Holidays. Sundays 12/
or the balance 10 Depoya Common to all
to be decided after discussion. This will make the total no of Public
holidays either 17 or 19 This will boost production in all sectors due
to an increase in the number of working hours
All other holidays presently declared
as National Holidays like Christmass, Good Friday. Maha Sivaratri, Deepawali Thaipongal,
Mohomads Birth Day, Hajji Festival, Ramasan Should be declared holidays only
for the respective religious communities. This I think is the best arrangement
any Government should make to protect the country’s Sinhala Buddhist identity.
33 Withdraw political rights from all
public servants, other than the right to vote to bring back discipline and
sanity to public service so that we can have an efficient and productive and
disciplined loyal public service under strict supervision of the immediate supervisory officers.
34 Remove the 29 National list MPP
from Parliament who are not elected by the people by a motion with the
consensus of other parties pending Amendment to the Constitution.
35 Stop payment of bonuses and
overtime in all institutions that don’t show a profit in their annual balance
sheets and also make annual confidential reports compulsory in all Ministries,
departments and statutory institutions
Important: I
request some one knowledgeable and competent to calculate the net savings that
would accrue to the Government under the implementation of each of these items,
if they are implemented.
This is only
a few important ideas that came to one man’s head at random. I invite readers
to add any other important issue that comes to their mind to make the operation
a fuller success.
පාලකයින්ට ණුවන පහල වේවා!
මගේ රටත් ජාතියත් මේ අර්බුධයෙන් ගොඩ ඒවා !
