Livelihood facilities, the key to Jaffna's development - D.E.W. Gunasekera

By P. Krishnaswamy

Senior Minister of Human Resources and Chairman of the Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) D.E.W. Gunasekera visited Jaffna last week to address a two-day seminar attended by the Government Agents (GAs), Additional Government Agents(AGAs) and senior public servants from all the five Northern districts. In an interview with the Sunday Observer, the Minister said that the seminar was a follow-up of the COPE report which had prompted the need to educate all senior public servants on the constitutional requirement of spending public funds appropriately, prudently, economically, efficiently and productively.

Meetings organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs were first held with Ministry Secretaries followed by seminars/workshops to AGAs and Heads of Government Departments and other enterprises in the Western Province.

The seminars will also be held in all provinces and the Provincial Council officials too will be encompassed into the program, he said. During his visit to Jaffna, he observed that the work on providing infrastructure facilities to the terrorism-raved Northern Province was almost completed and what the Government should now focus on was providing livelihood facilities to the people, he said.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: You were in Jaffna last week to address a two-day seminar and workshop to senior public servants, including GAs and AGAs and Heads of Government Departments in the Northern province. Such a seminar for public servants of the Northern Province was unheard of in the past. What was the purpose of it?

A: This is a follow-up action after the publication of the COPE report. There had been such reports many times in the past, including the COPE report of 1979. But there was no follow-up action.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs organised a series of seminars and workshops for Additional Secretaries and AGAs and other senior public servants in the different departments and State institutions, including the parliament.

The seminars were first conducted for all top government officials in the Western province. Last week they had it for senior public servants in the Northern province. The GAs, AGAs and other senior officials from the five districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya attended.

It was the first time in the history of the Sri Lankan public service that such a large number of government officials converged in one place for a seminar/work shop.

We had a secretaries' meeting immediately after the COPE report, followed by meetings with additional secretaries and heads of departments.

Then we had a meeting with provincial officials, and last week we had the meeting in the Northern province. We are going to have meetings/seminars in every province. We also want to bring the provincial councils into it.

The purpose was really a series of lectures. The theme of the lectures was on the control of finance and revenue. The Northern Province Governor and the Secretaries to the Ministries of Parliamentary Affairs and Public Administration were also present.

Q: What was the special emphasis of your lectures with regard to the handling or controlling of finance?

A: I gave the general historical background with regard to the control of finance in our country starting from the time of British occupation and how the public purse shifted from the Executive to the Legislature, especially after 1948 under the Soulbury constitution.

Now, Parliament is the sole guardian of the public purse. The control of finance really starts from the presentation of the budget by the Minister of Finance where the money is allocated.

Once the Speaker of the House gives his assent the money is channelled through the Ministry Secretaries to the Heads of the Departments, GAs and other top officials down to the grassroot level.

Then, during the course of that fiscal year there are internal audits in the respective organisations and they have to account for the utilisation of the money.

It is a requirement under the constitution that the money passed by the parliament is spent appropriately, prudently, economically, efficiently and productively.

It has to be assured through the internal audit and then the Auditor General comes into the scene.

The Auditor General's Department is one of the first departments set up by the British as far back as 1879 even before they took complete control of the maritime provinces of the island. I stressed on the constitutional link between the legislature and the ministry secretaries.

Q: You were the Chairman of the COPE which had submitted a detailed report on all shortcomings with regard to mismanagement of funds allocated to the different government institutions. What were the major shortcomings that were reported with regard to funds allocated to such institutions?

A: When the COPE started work we found that the annual reports were not published in every government departments, ministries and other organisations in spite of the fact that it was absolutely necessary for being submitted to the Cabinet and then to the parliament. Such reports had not been published for many years.

In some cases the reports were not published for over 10 years.

By the time the report comes to the COPE, the officials who were in-charge, including Chief Accounting Officers and Accountants, would either have retired, transferred or resigned. We took an initiative to examine all public enterprises and completed the work in respect of 229 such enterprises. That had a big impact.

As a consequence , all the government departments and enterprises have now completed their reports up to 2009.

Seventy percent of them have completed the accounts for the year 2010 and forty percent for the year 2011.

The media gave good publicity to the COPE report even before the details transpired within the House and the Committee. It has had its positive impact on public service.

Q: Were there representatives of the Tamil political parties present at the seminar/workshop in Jaffna and, if so, did they raise any questions with regard to handling or disbursement of funds?

A: Representatives of Tamil political parties and even some MPs were there.

They raised questions about various malpractices and shortcomings with regard to handling of funds. I requested them to send their representations on the matter to me so that I will be able to hold inquiries.