{"id":55872,"date":"2016-06-22T14:55:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T21:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55872"},"modified":"2016-06-22T14:55:57","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T21:55:57","slug":"the-provincial-councils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/06\/22\/the-provincial-councils\/","title":{"rendered":"THE \u201cPROVINCIAL COUNCILS\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The Provincial Councils were set up in February 1988, under the Provincial Councils Act no 42 of 1987, as a requirement of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.\u00a0 Each province had a Governor, Chief Minister and Councilors. The Governor, appointed by the President, ranked above the Chief Minister. Governor could take decisions without consulting the Chief Minister or the Provincial Council. His decision was final and could not be questioned in court.\u00a0 He could\u00a0\u00a0 summon the Provincial Council and\u00a0\u00a0 the Provincial Council had to obey. The Council could not discuss his actions, or introduce any draft statutes relating to finance, or make a request from central government for money, without the recommendation of the Governor.<\/p>\n

The administration of the island was now divided into three segments, Provincial Councils List, reserved list and concurrent list.\u00a0 The reserved list, with subjects like defense and foreign policy was for the central government. Subjects in the concurrent list were shared by central government and Provincial Councils.<\/p>\n

The Provincial Councils list contained\u00a0\u00a0 subjects\u00a0\u00a0 which should have stayed under central control. They are land, police, public order, and local government.\u00a0 Other subjects including health, education, agriculture, irrigation, rural development, roads, electricity (apart from the national grid), ancient and historical monuments and records other than those declared to be of national importance, were also given to the Provincial Councils. Provincial Councils controlled banks, corporations, insurance and financial bodies relating to their subjects. A separate provincial administration was created, with a Provincial public services Commission for each province. A good part of the administration of the island was now with the Provincial Councils and not the central government.\u00a0 Since Provincial Councils could enact statutes for their subjects, they had partial sovereignty.<\/p>\n

The Provincial Councils have been charged with poor management \u00a0and lack of foresight regarding their subjects. . They made a mess of health and education. They have failed in transport, agriculture\u00a0\u00a0 and cooperatives, too. Western Province Transport authority, for instance,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 had not implemented the Supreme Court order to introduce time tables for bus operators.\u00a0 Private bus owners want the 13th Amendment repealed, saying it had created a chaotic situation in the entire transport sector and caused serious problems.\u00a0 However, Provincial Councils have no intention of giving in. They objected to the National Transport commission\u00a0\u00a0 issuing permit for inter provincial bus routes, without getting the consent of the relevant Provincial authorities.<\/p>\n

Wayamba\u00a0\u00a0 Cooperative rural Bank which was once profit making was now in debt. Elections to cooperatives were regularly postponed. Large reservoirs, over 25 acres come under the central government but small ones are under the Provincial Councils. Most reservoirs therefore come under the Provincial Councils. About 10,000 or so of them are neglected, say farmers. Provincial Councils say they do not have adequate funds and therefore work on the smaller tanks get delayed. Wayamba Provincial Council had started to renovate 90 \u2018lakes\u2019 in 2004, but they started at the wrong time, in rainy season and used up all the money. Farmers were stranded.<\/p>\n

Before the 13th Amendment, agricultural extension work was carried out by the Department of Agriculture at Gannoruwa. They had been doing it for years\u00a0 and had the necessary expertise, \u00a0\u00a0facilities, service input, planting materials and research capability.\u00a0 But extension work is now a \u2018devolved\u2019 subject under the Provincial Councils and the central department does not want to \u2018touch it\u2019 .\u00a0 Since the Provincial Councils have no idea how extension work should be planned and implemented either, the farmer is deprived of the extension service he used to get. Agricultural extension work is now a mess, with the Provincial Councils in charge, said Ranjit Mulleriyawa<\/p>\n

The Provincial Councils have under them 330 local government institutions, including 18 municipal councils, 42 urban councils, and 270 pradeshiya sabhas. Finance Commission reported that in 2007 the Provincial Councils had not given funds to the local government organizations under them.\u00a0 In 2009 Finance Commission said\u00a0\u00a0 Provincial Councils had sought billions of rupees to pay the salaries of the local government staff.<\/p>\n

Provincial Councils have \u2018created confusion\u2019 in the local government administration\u00a0\u00a0 and local administration is \u2018in shambles in most parts of the country,\u2019 say observers. Provincial Councils have introduced complicated procedures for them.\u00a0 In the case of stamp duties, fines and court fees,\u00a0\u00a0 local government has to submit a claim by Municipal Commissioner, or Secretary, Urban Council. Claim had to be forwarded within a set period, accompanied by a certificate from the Registrar General, giving date of each payment levied and date of its remittance to the Provincial Council.\u00a0 For court fines and penalties,\u00a0\u00a0 claim had to state the Ordinance and Act under which such fines and penalties had been imposed. \u2018This seems a planned maneuver, to hijack the monies due to the local governments,\u2019 said one observer.<\/p>\n

The Provincial Councils\u00a0\u00a0 depend heavily on the grant given by central government.\u00a0 Very little revenue is raised directly by them. That revenue comes from local taxes such as turnover tax, vehicle registration, land transfers, including stamp fees, traffic offenses fines, court fees and arrack license. \u00a0The money given by central government was usually inadequate, sometimes also not fully used, but it was huge. The Provincial Councils had collectively requested over Rs 116 billion for recurrent expenditure alone for 2009.<\/p>\n

Most of the money went on the Provincial Council itself. Staggering sums were spent on the buildings which housed the Provincial Councilc.\u00a0 Ministers and councilors demanded staff, mobile phones, fuel allowances and pensions. Cars, official residences and other symbols of prestige got priority. In 2012, each minister got a monthly salary of 63,000, monthly fuel allowance of 800 liters of petrol, personal staff of 10, peons, drivers, clerks. Two fixed line telephones, with user limit of Rs. 10,000 a mobile with monthly\u00a0 limit of Rs 5000 and a\u00a0 Rs 1000 month entertainment allowance. Councilors got salary of Rs 30,000 250 liters or more petrol, entertain allowance of 500\/- and Rs 5000 transport allowance.<\/p>\n

Each Provincial Council\u00a0\u00a0 had over 100 staff grade officers and over\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 500 clerical and technical staff.\u00a0 In 2009, Western Provincial Council had 52,068 employees and Central Provincial Council\u00a0\u00a0 had 41,525 employees.\u00a0 Finance Commission said over 75% of the money allocated to Provincial Councils went on salaries, wages, over time, holiday payments and other allowances. This, it was pointed out, had been done earlier,\u00a0\u00a0 for school teachers for instance, by one department in Colombo.<\/p>\n

We should find out\u00a0 the amount\u00a0 of public funds spend on Provincial Council for\u00a0 elections, salaries, monies spend on the councilors ,\u00a0 payments to personal staff, putting up\u00a0\u00a0 the Provincial Council buildings, and\u00a0 how much has been spend on the welfare of the public. A study will show that most of the money went on the Provincial Council expenses, not for the people, said S.L. Gunasekera.<\/p>\n

Provincial Councils have\u00a0\u00a0 added another set of politicians, to the ones we already have,\u00a0 say the public. It has given\u00a0 a new set of\u00a0 opportunities to\u00a0 politicians and political parties.\u00a0 Only the politicians and their kith and kin and hangers on have benefited.\u201d They have\u00a0\u00a0 engaged in high corruption and feathered their own nests. They have exploited and destroyed the economy and the environment. They have\u00a0\u00a0 been guilty of acts of violence. A councilor had hit a man with the butt of a gun for asking directions to a funeral.\u00a0 At the Western Provincial Council meeting, December 2012, there was a brawl and some members had their noses and ears bitten.<\/p>\n

Provincial Councils were declared to be a \u2018colossal waste of funds\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0involving expenditure which could be put to better use.\u00a0 They have added to the number of persons in the public sector and created another, huge bureaucratic layer to the one we already have. There are allegations of Irregularities, fraud, misappropriation of funds. \u2018It has become essential to bribe the Provincial Councils to get anything done.\u2019 Provincial Councils have provided no service to the people\u00a0 and have not benefited the public. Can anybody show that they are better off with the Provincial Council system than they were before? Most of the Provincial Councils are not effective. \u2018Those working in them are fed up\u2019. They have now managed to earn the contempt of everybody \u00a0and deserve to be abolished. That will result in a massive saving.<\/p>\n

The Provincial Council system has been roundly condemned as a costly, useless white elephant.\u00a0 A \u2018white elephant\u2019 is something which costs a lot, is of no use, but cannot be got rid of.\u00a0 The Provincial Councils are not innocent \u2018white elephants\u2019. They are dangerous. They were custom designed to break up the country in a manner which would prevent it from ever re-uniting again. Depicted as an egg, in a cartoon, Sri Lanka was told, I am going to make an omlette out of you.\u201d Can I become an egg again?\u201d asked Sri Lanka. Answer, no.\u00a0 This was during the \u2018union of regions\u2019 phase. One critic said the PC system has done much more damage to this country than the executive presidency. We can easily do without Provincial Councils. . Why doesn\u2019t anybody challenge the Provincial Councils system in courts?\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=140049<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Provincial Councils were set up in February 1988, under the Provincial Councils Act no 42 of 1987, as a requirement of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.\u00a0 Each province had a Governor, Chief Minister and Councilors. The Governor, appointed by the President, ranked above the Chief Minister. Governor could take decisions without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872","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=55872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}