Perks before portfolios?

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The culture of portfolios and perks continue even after the election of a new government, at the August 17 general elections, with its estimated running costs amounting to megabucks.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government had 52 Cabinet Ministers and a large number of deputies and state ministers and the ‘tradition’ continues with the United National Front government with a 46-member Cabinet.

Most of the politicians of bad repute of the previous regimes, whether the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) or the United National Party (UNP) have been returned to Parliament and many of them given prominent ministerial positions.

This is not ‘the new political culture’ as desired by the people at large, but this old political culture has been entrenched by offering portfolios to politicians to garner support to safeguard political interests.

Though the formation of the Cabinet of the National Unity Government falls short of the Rajapaksa benchmark, the size and the composition of its ministerial-collection has caused a massive burden on public coffers as the Government has to provide all perks and building facilities to approximately 89 Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

The public have raised concern if a jumbo cabinet of this size could be permitted, it would seriously contravene the January 8 and August 17 mandates of easing the public burden and bringing tangible benefits to the people.

Speculation

There was speculation that some Ministers have encountered problems of finding new buildings to house their ministries. However, many Ministers and Deputies contacted by the Sunday Observer denounced the need for additional buildings. A senior Public Administration Ministry official told the Sunday Observer that it is not a function of the Ministry to allocate buildings to Ministers and their Deputies and added that it is the duty of the Public Administration Ministry to provide official residences to the Ministers and Deputy Ministers following their requests.

According to the accepted procedure, if any state-owned buildings are not available to accommodate the newly elected ministers and deputy ministers, they will have to find suitable privately owned buildings on their own. It is up to the Ministry Secretary to submit a memorandum to the Cabinet and get its approval for the desired building. The amount of money approved for the building will be decided based on the square feet.

Highly informed sources said that the names and functions of the ministries have been gazetted. They said only three newly created ministries, Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade, Ministry of Public Enterprises Development and Ministry of Primary Industries had encountered problems to find buildings to continue their office.

A spokesman for the Office of the Cabinet Ministers told the Sunday Observer that normally buildings to accommodate Ministers and their Deputies are handled by the Presidential Secretariat, but Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has intervened to resolve the issue. Therefore, suitable buildings have already been provided to all Ministers and their Deputies to continue their office without any hindrance.

Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage told the Sunday Observer that at present his Ministry has also been given space in the Govijana Mandiraya Building, Battaramulla. To facilitate the functions of the Ministry, we hope to set up our marketing promotion division at the World Trade Centre.

Private buildings

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said buildings to accommodate new ministries have not become a big issue as the number of ministerial and deputy ministerial portfolios have been reduced from what it was under the former UPFA government. In addition, the new ‘Sethsiripaya’ building complex at Battaramulla has also provided space for a number of ministries.

Even some private buildings

such as the one used by former Economic Development Minister, Basil Rajapaksa remains vacant at present but the rent has been paid for the whole year.

Forty-six Cabinet Ministers are included in the National Unity Government now. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution has restricted the number of Cabinet Ministers to 30, but cynically permitted Parliament for a bigger number if a ‘national government’ is formed.

Amidst the agitation by the people and civil society groups to reduce the number of the jumbo Cabinet and resort to a more tolerant and inclusive political culture, Parliament on September 3 approved the resolution to increase the Cabinet of Ministers from the constitutionally provisioned 30 members to 48.

In an indication of the Government’s fragility, 63 MPs abstained from voting for the Cabinet expansion while 16 MPs opposed it. A couple of days later, the National Unity Government also appointed 19 State Ministers and 24 Deputy Ministers which brought the total number of Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers to 89.

The public perception is that if a Government could be run with 30 ministries as per the constitutional provision, the increase in the number is not for the purpose of running the country but to pacify the crossovers. It is to divide the resources among themselves and not to work for the country and burden the public with the increase in the number of ministerial and deputy ministerial portfolios.

A senior political analyst told the Sunday Observer that both the UNP and the SLFP is trotting out excuses by saying that they have formed a coalition government, but the public is at a loss to understand as to why the number of ministers had increased merely because of a coalition being formed. The Government should overcome the additional burden faced by the nation by not increasing the number of ministers.

Baseless argument

The SLFP’s justification is that the people have not given a simple majority to any party to form a Government and that is why they decided to form a coalition with the UNP, which is a baseless argument.

Under the proportional representation scheme, except on two occasions, all Governments formed after 1977 didn’t have simple majorities in parliament. However, they were able to set up Governments without forming a coalition with the main opposition party. The UNP’s justification is that they formed a coalition Government to secure the two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution.

In the past, we have seen Parliament supporting progressive legislation and there was no need for the Government to offer ministerial portfolios to the Opposition to gain support to pass progressive legislation.

In this backdrop, the UNP’s argument is baseless. The SLFP and the UNP are duty bound to tell the nation the reason to form a coalition government, consisting of a large number of ministerial portfolios, adding yet another burden on public coffers.

* According to well- informed sources, a Minister and a Deputy Minister would cost the state coffers around Rs.30 million and Rs.20 million respectively annually. This include salaries and transport allowances of personal staff as well.

* Every Minister is entitled to a 15-member personal staff, six Police officers for security and three vehicles for the Minister’s use.

* In addition, there is a private secretary, two coordinating secretaries and a media secretary and each of them get a vehicle.

A Deputy Minister gets a 10- member personal staff, six security personnel, three vehicles for personal use and another three vehicles for his private staff., well informed sources said