{"id":98118,"date":"2020-01-22T17:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98118"},"modified":"2020-01-22T17:00:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T00:00:34","slug":"working-without-a-budget-can-this-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/22\/working-without-a-budget-can-this-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Working without a budget: Can this be done?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Our new Government of President Gotabhaya has decided to hold up\nmega projects till the budget in August 2020.(The decision of our new\nGovernment to Mega projects on hold until August budget:\u201d(Sunday Times:12\/01\/20))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mind travels in nostaglia to two world class development\nprogrammes which commenced without a budget. I speak not from hearsay  or\nreference, but from sheer experience as I happened to be  a major player\nin both programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 One is the Divisional Development Councils Programme,\nthe flagship programme of the Sirimavo Government of 1970-1977, implemented\nwhen I was the Government Agent, the Chief Officer of a major district. The\nplanning and implementation of the Programme in the District was entirely mine\nfor the first two years. This Programme created employment for 33,270 youths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other is the Youth Self Employment Programme of\nBangladesh. a programme that was solely designed and established by me\nwithin two years, which, being implemented later by officers trained by\nme,  is today the premier employment creation programme the world has\nknown, a programme that has by now guided some three million youths to become\nself employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would kindly request our leaders to read through this Paper\nwhich details – how we did implement major programmes without a budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Divisional Development Councils Programme was\nimplemented with great hopes. The leading economist in the island, Professor\nHAdeS Gunasekdera was hand picked and appointed the Secretary of a new\nMinistry: The Ministry for Plan Implementation. One senior SLAS Officer was his\nassistant and a staff of a dozen clerical officers were detailed. This Ministry\nwas housed in a section of the Central Bank. I do not actually know how they\nwere paid. However it would not amount to any major deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In implementation, the Programme was thrust on the Government Agents\nand the Divisional Secretaries. They were not given any additional payment, not\neven a traveling allowance. The Programme was given great prominence and even a\nhelicopter was placed for  Professor Gunasekera’s travel. At the District\nlevel, in the earlier Government of Premier Dudley Senanayake, prominence was\ngiven to agriculture. What happened was that the Government Agents decamped\nfrom attending to agriculture and concentrated on this new programme.  The\nGovernment Agent of a District is in charge of a  a dozen or more\ndepartments and in Matara I selected the ablest staff officers to attend to\nthis programme in addition to their duties. In my eighteen years\u2019 experience I\nhave always found  a core of able patriotic officers who are prepared to\ndo additional work without any additional pay, provided they are convinced of\nthe worth of the programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DDCP was commenced by the Government Agents through the\nDivisional Secretaries. There was no budgetary provision but conferences and\ntraining workshops were held, work was apportioned, development projects were\nsought, feasibility studies were done, all without any budgetary expenditure.\nIt took a few months for Graduate Assistants to be selected and that required\nbudgetary provision. Around fifteen Graduate Assistants were posted to the\nDistrict and they worked with the staff officers who were already on the job.\nIt was later that Planning Officers were appointed- one per district. The\nDevelopment Councils made suggestions and feasibility studies were done by\nstaff officers in the katcheri. The Graduate Assistants joined the service for\nthe first time and they were actually being trained by the katcheri staff\nofficers and the Divisional Secretaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was my idea to find the art of making crayons and\nestablish an industry on our own as the Ministry of Plan Implementation was\ninterested only in attending to very small projects and small agricultural\nfarms. Many projects suggested by me were rejected. I thought of establishing a\nmajor industry on my own.   I with the Planning Officer, a chemistry\ngraduate and other interested staff officers  were  at the science\nlab of Rahula College which we had requisitioned every night for our\nexperiments. Later on when I finally decided to establish the Coop Crayon\nfactory and I decided that it be done in two weeks, the Planning Officer, and\nother katcheri staff officers moved to Morawaka and broke rest for two weeks-\nit was a 24 hour a day operation, Coop Crayon, the work of many an unpaid\nworker won the day to be the flagship industry of the DDCP.  That was also\nthe hard work put in by Sumanapala Dahanayake the Mmber of Parliament for\nDeniyaya, in his capacity as the President of the Morawak Korale Cooperative\nUnion. He was an excellent organizer. He was enthusiastic as his patriotism\nknew no bounds as long as the task was developmental. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister of Industries TB Subasinghe  was surprised to see the quality of the\ncrayon and gladly accepted our request to open sales. He could not believe his\neyes to see two rooms full with packets of crayons all done within some three\nweeks. Minister of Trade & Imports \nIllangaratne even allocated an allocation of foreign exchange for us to\nimport dyes when the Ministry of Industries refused. That was from the foreign\nexchange earmarked for imports, and he gladly cut off imports, which shows how\nany Government can benefit immediately from developing local industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my District other highlights of work without pay was the\ncontribution by late Ran Ariyadasa the Divisional Secretary on whom I placed\ntotal responsibility for the Mechanised Boatyard Project, that made some 40\nseaworthy boats a year.  He was helped by a Graduate Assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers also marched in to help projects. Science teachers at\nRahula College helped the Planning Officer when he did a myriad experiments-\neasily thousands to unearth the art of making a crayon to be equal to the\nReeves.  In the batik and sewing project at Tittapaddara, the instructor\nenlisted from a private batik project in Galle to work on payment for the days\nhe worked, decamped a day before  we opened the project A  science\nteacher and a volunteer stepped in at a day\u2019s notice to handle the project and\nthey were only provided transport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Divisional Secretaries got down to work in earnest all in\naddition to their normal duties. I am aware of the work done by Wilson Perera\nthe Divisional Secretary at Baddegama, a friend of mine. An agricultural project\nwith 60 youths was established on a neglected estate that was taken over. 12\nacres of neglected rubber was rehabilitated, 40 acres of neglected tea was\nrehabilitated, 20 acres of jungle was planted with coconut and 50 acres of\nneglected paddy was rehabilitated. The work of this officer was so exemplary\nwhich made  the Member of Parliament of the area, Deputy Minister Niel de\nAlwis think  that he would contest against him at the general election and\ngot him transferred overnight. Wilson  need not have done all that work in\naddition to his normal duties as the Divisional Secretary.(From: Papers on the\nEconomic Development of Sri Lanka) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper factory established by the Divisional Secretary at\nKotmale was a great success. That Divisional Secretary too  could have\ndone small projects and got off . But he was trying to do something more,\nbeyond the call of normal duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwas budgetary provision for project approvals. There were funds to buy the\nmachinery and to pay a small stipend to the youths till the project generated\nenough income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging from the total work done I am of the opinion that \neasily seventy to eighty percent of the work of the DDCP was done by staff\nofficers of the districts without any pay or even a traveling allowance, entirely\nin addition to their normal duties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Youth Self Employment\nProgramme of Bangladesh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1982, when the military government of General Ershard took\nover Bangladesh, I was working as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor on Youth to the\nMinistry of Youth Development. The Military Government was very sceptical and\ncritical about the work done in the Youth Ministry. A Conference was held to\nevaluate the programmes, when I was ordered to detail what contribution I could\nmake for Bangladesh. I recommended that there should be a programme to guide\nyouths in training to become self employed because most of the 40,000 \nyouths trained each year remained unemployed. The Secretary to the Treasury,\nthe highest ranking officer in the service objected on the grounds that a self\nemployment or employment creation programme was something that can never be\nachieved. He quoted the miserable failure of an attempt by the International\nLabour Organization(ILO) to establish a self employment programme in Tangail,\nBangladesh in the earlier three years and vehemently insisted that I will never\nbe able to establish a self employment programme. I contested his views and\npersisted that I had the experience as well as the academic qualifications and\ncould be certain of success. A bitter argument  ensued my detailing how I\nwill succeed, while he was adamant that I would fail. I had to offer a\nchallenge- that though the ILO of the United Nations with all their funds and\nworld famed experts failed, I will succeed. This battle in  an \nintensive and gruelling form went on for over two hours between the two of\nus  till the Minister had enough of it and ordered both of us to shut up.\nHe then said that he had been listening to both sides and that I had convinced\nhim and ordered that I should establish a self employment programme. The\nSecretary to the Treasury, the officer who held the purse strings stumped\nstating  that he will not be providing any funds for any such programme as\nthere were no funds to waste. I immediately replied that I needed no new funds,\nbut our Ministry  should be authorised to find savings within the existing\nyouth training budget and utilize such savings for establishing the self\nemployment activities. I added that our Ministry  should be authorized to\nvary the remits of officers working in the Youth Ministry. The Minister\napproved my suggestion to the chagrin of the Secretary to the Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started work the very next day with around a few hundred youth\nworkers, deputy directors of youth, lecturers who were involved in vocational\ntraining, teaching them elements of economics, national economic priorities-how\nto identify areas where employment creation will result in increases in\nproduction, how the youths should be guided to develop their abilities and\ncapacities as they engaged in activities to establish minor income generating\nprojects.  This was national planning in detail and motivating youths to\ntake on the mantle of  national development. It was a combination of\neconomics and methods of involving youths in income generation activities,\nestablishing chicken farms, dairy projects, carpentry and sewing projects etc.\nWe were motivating the youths to utilize the skills they were learning and get\ninto a process of action which will bring them incomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In\nless than two years by the time my assignment ended 2000 youths were being\nguided to become self employed. By March 1985  6024 youths had established\nincome generating projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nProgramme which commenced in mid 1982, continued entirely funded from savings\nfrom other youth training budgets till 1985 when it was accorded an annual\nallocation  by the Five Year Plan of the Planning Commission of\nBangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthis allocation the Programme was developed further. Its three residential\ntraining centers in 1982 was increased to 10 by 1984\/65, to 64 by 1997. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\n2011 the Government of Bangladesh reported to the IFAD(FAO), one of the funders\nthat two million youths had become self employed. Today it is an ongoing\nprogramme where 160,000 youths are guided annually to become self employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nYSEP is easily the premier programme of employment creation the World has known\nthat has by now guided over three million youths to become self employed. The\nYouth Development Department  that implements this Programme today spends\n95% of its time and budget to create self employed youth out of school\ndropouts. All this was achieved by a programme which was entirely funded from\nsavings in voted budgets for the first four years 1982 to\n1985.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\nin my eighties,  I am proud to have designed and established this world\nclass programme, with the active support of  Bangladeshi administrators\ntrained by me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(\nFor more details: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and  Alternative\nProgrammes of success(Godages: 2006) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over to our new leaders: Please consider funding a few\nemployment creation programmes from savings. The quoted instances prove that\nthis can be done.  May I suggest for kind consideration that the projects\nselected be of the import substitution type, where there is an immediate\nbenefit in terms of obviating foreign exchange being used for imports. There\nare many projects that can be commenced within months, which can be proved\nsustainable within a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our country yearns for any such initiative today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin\nKarunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former\nG.A. Matara<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16\/01\/2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author\nof: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papers\non the Economic Development of Sri Lanka,(Godages: 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (Kindle\/Godages:2017)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University Our new Government of President Gotabhaya has decided to hold up mega projects till the budget in August 2020.(The decision of our new Government to Mega projects on hold until August budget:\u201d(Sunday Times:12\/01\/20)) My mind travels in nostaglia to two world class development programmes which commenced without a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98118","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=98118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}