President’s Fund: Right to know

As famously said, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Where bright light shines, disease cannot thrive. Good systems go hand in hand with transparency and openness. The right to information, which is now being debated, is not just good, it is absolutely essential.

Every citizen, rich or poor, contributes towards the public sector. It is their taxes that fund the entire State structure, President’s office, ministries, departments and the millions of public servants. When governments negotiate loans, the ensuing debt sooner or later becomes payable by the people. By the time that debt becomes payable, persons who negotiated the loan, politician or bureaucrat, may not be among the living. But the liability is carried by the country and its people, until it is finally paid.

People have a right to know

Given the primacy of the people, it is unnecessary for there to be a long-drawn-out debate about the right to information. The people have a right to know what is happening in public institutions and what is being done with their money, save for a few special areas such as national security , sensitive matters pertaining to the integrity of the State and perhaps certain aspects fundamental to the country’s economic stability. While the need for confidentiality in such (restricted) areas is obvious, here too, the cloak of confidentiality is not a permanent cover. After a reasonable period the cover is removed and access to once confidential information is provided.

The right to information is not limited to activities of the government. What goes on in other places, tax havens, off-shore accounts, real estate deals in foreign lands could hold the clue to the integrity of systems and transactions thousands of miles away. If anything, the global scandal blown up by the Panama Papers bring to attention the unwholesome nexus between power and money, two things that are rarely apart. 

According to the information divulged by the leaks, several heads of government have had undeclared accounts there. In one Latin American country, even the head of their anti-corruption body had betrayed the people’s trust, holding large sums of undeclared money in these secretive arrangements.

"Like many institutions associated with this office, there is a common perception that the Presidential Fund too may have been misused, or applied in manners not quite envisaged in the law or in the spirit of its creation. These funds were never meant to be a slush fund to be utilised to help friends and associates of the holder of the office of the President. Nor can such funds be applied in a manner calculated to enhance the political position or the bargaining power of the President. The purpose was more serious and noble"

Abuse of power

A central criticism of the Rajapaksa regime by the Yahapalanaya alliance was that all power was concentrated in the hands of a clique around the President, decisions being made by a small cabal of family members, aided by a staff of sycophants and careerists in the lowest sense. Decision making at the highest levels became ad-hoc, self-serving and opaque. 

From the very inception, the office of the Presidency has been seen as unsuitable for a clime and culture such as ours. It lends itself too easily to the abuse of power, perpetuation thereof, and of course, corruption. Even for those who saw some good in the idea of an executive presidency, the Rajapaksa years provided the proof that this office poses far more dangers to the ideals of good governance than any potential for good it may carry in concept.  To abolish the presidency was the one demand that the entire movement against the Rajapaksa regime rallied on. 

While we wait for the promised constitutional changes, there are other institutional aspects of the office of the President which could be made more transparent right away, if not dismantled altogether.

Presidential Fund 

The so-called Presidential Fund was created as a discretionary fund to draw on in order to assist those in dire need or deserving of help. Just because the word President is added to the title, the fund does not become holy. All the money for the President’s Fund comes from public sources, including proceeds of lotteries. For contingencies, the usual sources of funding available to a government are slow in coming and usually involve long bureaucratic processes. In such cases, a ready fall back source such as the President’s Fund could be useful. The Act envisages the funds being applied for health, education and other basic needs of those deserving.

Although the image of a benevolent ruler giving and a grateful people receiving is an anachronism in the modern era, we have no issue with the President having discretion in deciding who ought to receive the benefit, and to what extent.  Somebody has to make the decision, and it is assumed that such decisions are made bona fide. However a fundamental fact never to be ignored here is that these are funds collected from the public, for the public. 

But like many institutions associated with this office, there is a common perception that the Presidential Fund too may have been misused, or applied in manners not quite envisaged in the law or in the spirit of its creation. These funds were never meant to be a slush fund to be utilised to help friends and associates of the holder of the office of the President. Nor can such funds be applied in a manner calculated to enhance the political position or the bargaining power of the President. The purpose was more serious and noble.

Questionable endowments

Some of the alleged endowments from these funds left the people scratching their heads trying to figure out the sense behind the payment, from what is after all their money. It was once said that the funds were used to meet the medical expenses of a son of a Minister who had met with an accident while living overseas.

More recently it was speculated that several well-heeled professionals, artists and even businessmen have had their medical expenses met through these funds. The criteria surely cannot be fame; this is not a fund for the rich and famous. It is even alleged that some officials in high positions compromised their independence, becoming obliged to the President, by obtaining benefits for their children from it.

Given that the workings of the President’s Fund are not in the public domain, we do not know the truth of any of the speculation about beneficiaries thereof. But this is a public fund, created with public money, and as to who had benefited from it is a matter of relevance to the public. Where the sun shines there is visibility.

The people have a right to know where their funds went.