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| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
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Politics |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Performance appraisal of ministers by D.M. Seneviratne With every change of government it is common to see impressive policy statements and promises being made by the newly elected leaders. However, at the end of the period when the time comes to look back on the achievements very often most of the promises have not been kept or the policy statements simply forgotten. Very often this happens because even the electorate does not hold the leaders accountable to their promises unless when an election is around the corner. This culture has made our leaders complacent, unaccountable and prone to make irresponsible promises.After working in a private sector for a long period my view is that such lapses can be corrected by appraising the performance of Ministers, MPs and Heads of various departments, boards and corporations on an annual basis against targets set at the beginning of the year as done by private sector companies. Another reason for failing to keep election promises is the appointing of wrong persons to head sensitive statutory bodies and corporations. The nominees should be those without strong connections with business or any lobby groups, thorough with the subject of public finance and economics and be of unblemished character. Sad to say these characteristics are not seen in most of the members holding these offices at present and this is reflected by the weak decision making and buck passing attitudes evidenced by the recent controversies surrounding attempts to take over private sector banks by a businessman with questionable credentials violating the banking laws. |
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