{"id":48107,"date":"2015-09-24T21:49:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T03:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=48107"},"modified":"2015-09-23T14:49:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T21:49:18","slug":"conclusive-proof-mahinda-administration-was-far-less-corrupt-than-present-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/09\/24\/conclusive-proof-mahinda-administration-was-far-less-corrupt-than-present-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"Conclusive Proof Mahinda Administration Was Far Less Corrupt Than Present Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Corruption allegations were big business during the 2015 January election. It was one of the biggest political slogans played by the UNP-Sirisena camp. However, now there is conclusive proof of their absurdity. Mahinda administration was far less corrupt than the present UNP-Sirisena regime. To quantify, the UNP-Sirisena regime is $7 billion-a-year more corrupt than Mahinda regime.<\/p>\n

If Mahinda administration was corrupt as claimed, ending his governance would have saved money; billions according to some of his harshest critics. Where are the savings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing was saved which conclusively proves Mahinda was no worse in corruption than the UNP regime.<\/p>\n

In fact, the situation worsened with the UNP-Sirisena regime. A breakdown of loans of the government explains this well.<\/p>\n

By the time Mahinda left office, foreign debt stood at $31 billion and debt from domestic sources was $25 billion. By August 2015, foreign debt has risen by a net of $5 billion to $36 billion. Local debt has risen by $4 billion to $29 billion. In total, within just eight (8) months, total debt has risen by a staggering $9 billion. And what are the new development projects started by the current government to borrow so much? None. Where has this $9 billion gone?<\/p>\n

The story doesn\u2019t end there. By the time Mahinda left office, Sri Lanka had a balance of payment surplus of $1.9 billion. By August 2015, that too has been wasted to create a deficit of $0.8 billion. This is a total waste of $2.7 billion. Where is this $2.7 billion?<\/p>\n

All in all, a total of $11.7 billion has been wasted by the UNP-Sirisena regime within just eight (8) months. And there have been no new development projects. What happened to this money?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mahinda borrowed on average $4.5 billion a year since 2005 and corruption would have been significant. However, the UNP-Sirisena regime\u2019s $11.7 billion so far is an excess of $7.2 billion over Mahinda\u2019s average. UNP\u2019s corruption levels are astronomical in comparison.<\/p>\n

Corruption cannot be definitively measured. Instead people\u2019s perception of corruption is measured. For instance Transparency International publishes annually the Corruption Perception Index. This fact may explain why people readily believed corruption allegations against Mahinda administration in the run up to the January 2015 election. A larger amount of borrowed funds (90% according to some government sources) were allocated to the north and east depriving 88% of the people who live outside the north and east. Most people saw the steady rise of borrowings, their repayment, resultant high inflation and cost of living burden but didn\u2019t see proportionate returns in the areas they lived or worked. It naturally gave rise to a strong suspicion of corruption in mega scales. Opposition politicians cleverly exploited this suspicion.<\/p>\n

If the investment in the north-east was only 10% of borrowed funds and had 90% gone to other areas where 88% of the people live, very few would have believed corruption allegations as they could see commensurate development in their own areas. People cannot be faulted for their assumptions driven by inequitable funds allocation. Although the 2010-2015 regime is guilty of inequitable development funds allocation, it certainly is not guilty of corruption in comparison to\u00a0the UNP regime.<\/p>\n

These numbers are based on Central Bank reports and public statements. It proves beyond all doubt, the Mahinda administration was far less corrupt than the present UNP regime. UNP administration is $7.2 billion more corrupt than the Mahinda administration. With no new development projects to back it up, the wastage of $7.2 billion more by the UNP regime must be questioned by the people. This may also explain why the IMF refused to lend the $4 billion requested by the UNP regime in March 2015.<\/p>\n

Without fail, those politicians who promise most vigorously to fight corruption have always ended up most corrupt.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Corruption allegations were big business during the 2015 January election. It was one of the biggest political slogans played by the UNP-Sirisena camp. However, now there is conclusive proof of their absurdity. Mahinda administration was far less corrupt than the present UNP-Sirisena regime. To quantify, the UNP-Sirisena regime is $7 billion-a-year more corrupt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}