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Wednesday, 7 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Going by his sedate appearance, it is hard to imagine that as a young man D.E.W. committed himself wholeheartedly to the Communist Party, thus to the revolutionary overthrow of the existing system and thereafter to tirelessly work towards the creation of a classless society!
He was ready and willing, we may assume, to storm the bastions of the evil capitalist system and then defend with his life, if need be, the dictatorship of the proletariat that would replace the woeful State. Eventually the Communist Party, with infinite wisdom and skill would guide us through the withering away of the idea of a State itself!
Alas, that Marxist utopian was never to be. It all ended when the economies of the ‘Socialist’ states simply failed to provide their citizens with the basics of a good life, leave alone winning the arms race with Capitalist countries.
It was famously claimed, that with the bringing down of the Berlin Wall, ‘History’ ended. No more the uncanny workings of dialectical materialism shaping historical forces. It was no surprise that the effort of bringing down of the Berlin Wall was mainly carried by the Eastern Europeans who had tasted firsthand the bitter life conditions under so called socialist regimes.
What qualifies D.E.W. as a suitable investigator?
On a superficial level there is very little in the career path and the ideas of D.E.W. Gunasekera which commend him to the task of analysing and remedying the workings of State institutions in a free market economy. Nor can it be said that Gunasekera is an incisive student of economics or management theory.
As a communist agitator and union organiser it is very unlikely that he gave his mind to the minutiae of running commercial enterprises. On the contrary, the ideology he espoused gave strong support to the concept of State-run institutions. However wasteful or unrealistic, in the eyes of the Left parties, State institutions were a historical necessity and therefore morally superior to private enterprise.
But what qualifies D.E.W. Gunasekera as an eminently suitable investigator into the sad state of affairs in our State run sector are other factors, which have little to do with paper qualifications. First and foremost among these qualifications is the well-deserved reputation he has maintained for financial integrity when all about him seem to have lost theirs. Secondly, Gunasekera is known as a man of principle when adherence to principles seems out of fashion among his peers. Thirdly, he is known as a decent person, at a time when many so-called people’s representatives are thought of as underworld figures.
Gunasekera can also draw inspiration from historical parallels with the sterling contributions made by other famous left leaders like Dr. N.M. Perera and Bernard Soysa in the field of public finance. Bernard Soysa’s tenure as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee won him high regard. They were men of stature.
Alarming findings
The findings of COPE, the short and sweet for Committee on Public Enterprises, are alarming to say the least. Only upon reading the report will many of us discover that our tax money is being used to prop up exotic organisations such as the Hector Kobbekaduwa Research Institute and Saumymorthi Thondaman Memorial Foundation!
The reader will also find that our famed seats of higher learning such as the Open University and the Kelaniya University which, in addition to many other degrees also award MBAs (Master of Business Administration), had their own accounts ‘disclaimed’. This in the accounting parlance means that they failed to account for their finances in an acceptable manner! It is equally hilarious that the National Enterprise Development Authority is making losses!
But these organisations are small-timers in terms of the losses that they make. The Oscars for Himalayan-scale losses go to public enterprises like the Ceylon Electricity Board, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, SriLankan Airlines and the recently created Mihin Air. In terms of the potential to bankrupt the country, these are the true stars!
We then have other enterprises like the State Plantations Corporation and its twin, the JEDB, making huge losses even in a situation where their primary products like tea and rubber are fetching much better prices. You will be surprised to learn that the Land Reform Commission still exists, and of course running at an enormous cost, 40 years after land holdings were “reformed”.
In the Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation we have a case where the physician cannot heal himself, although everywhere else medicine is a huge money spinner. The same goes for the Ceylon Fisheries Harbour Corporation and the National Institute of Fisheries, unable to make ends meet in an ocean full of fish. Organisations like the Paddy Marketing Board and the Co-Operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE), operating in potentially lucrative economic sectors, were also adversely noted by the COPE.
White elephants
When we look at the aftermath of the attempt of various politicians at enterprise management what strike us is the ease with which they can commit millions of rupees for ill-thought out ventures. It is almost as if they wake up one morning and command their staff to establish various enterprises only because the previous night they had dreamt about it!
Let us have a budget airline, why not an airport in the wilderness, how about a highway to nowhere, are some of the dreams that have seemingly occurred. Tomorrow, a politician might dream that we should have a train service in the Wilpattu Sanctuary for the occasional tourist or that there should be cable cars to Sri Pada for the seasonal pilgrims. The day after, our money will be committed to that project! There is absolutely no need to study either feasibility or sustainability! And of course management can be safely entrusted to a family member!
The COPE report does not deal with the quality of services delivered by these white elephants. It is said that the tariff for electricity in this country is comparatively higher than most countries in South East Asia. Among the frequent travellers there will be very few who will opt to fly with local airlines and that too only if delays are of no consequence to them. Similarly, it will be very hard to come across consumers whose choice of a good shopping experience is the CWE!
Quality of corporate bosses
It would have been too touchy a subject politically for the COPE to comment on the quality of those heading these organisations in which the nation has invested so much. Invariably, they are political associates or relatives with personal agendas that have little to do with the proper management of State assets.
Rumour has it that several of these corporate bosses have had cases in the past for financial misdeeds. Once appointed, they hold their jobs regardless of the fact that the organisations they head go from bad to worse. The loss-making of course is limited to the organisation; the bosses are invariably much richer than they were when they assumed office!
Ultimately, for a poor country, the whole saga of these failed enterprises is a tragedy of momentous proportions. If all the losses that these organisations have incurred through the years are added up and then divided by the population (20 million), we will have some idea of the scale of the disaster. Where would we be today had all that money been invested in education for example?
Of course, in the wily world of Sri Lankan politics such simplistic equations have no place. In the prevailing culture we really have no choice, a change of government practically a ‘Scylla and Charybdis’ situation. The pervasive mediocrity in thought, skills, ethics, sensitivities and even consciousness has legitimised itself.
Meanwhile, the merry men who have made it in the political hierarchy can go their cheery way without having to account for anything done by them! We see our enchanted leaders whiz by in fast-moving convoys of gleaming vehicles, getting on stage for public occasions, cracking private jokes to each other and then laughing immoderately at their own jokes.
For the millions whose money is in the grip of these men, the only consolation seems the so-called democratic right to periodically vote for one of them, an exercise which can only confirm the hopelessness of their plight. An occasional voice of sanity like the COPE report of Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera will soon be forgotten, and we may say “like the dew on the mountain, like the foam of the river, like the bubble of the fountain, thou art gone, and forever…”
The writer is an Attorney-at-Law and a freelance writer.
