PB: Too valuable to be dropped
View(s):The corridors of the hallowed Ministry of Finance and Planning, the most powerful ministry in Sri Lanka, was buzzing with speculation this week as to whether Treasury Secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundera would step down and take up a foreign assignment – either in the diplomatic service or with an international lending agency.
The under-pressure Secretary, easily the most powerful and influential public official ever, so much so that he was brought back to the post even after resigning following severe Supreme Court strictures, has in recent times come under public attack from the likes of Minister Wimal Weerawansa.
Two weeks ago, he was removed from the post of Secretary of Economic Affairs. Highly placed sources say that disagreement on financial matters relating to mega development projects between Dr. Jayasundera and the hierarchy was making it difficult for the latter to continue even in the Treasury Secretary’s post.
These disagreements have prompted him to make remarks against top government individuals openly and privately and this was the reason for the fallout between him and government’s upper rank, the sources revealed adding that Dr. Jayasundera has had to regularize several ‘irrregular’ financial transactions.
Dr. Jayasundera is reported to have said that management of the Treasury has got so complicated due to the compulsion to regularize so many irregular deals that it would be near impossible for any newcomer to the post to sort out these matters even in six months. Other economists and financial analysts have said that the finances are in such a complicated mess – not due to Dr. Jayasundera’s incompetence but deft management at the behest of the hierarchy – that only the latter can put it back on track. “Whatever said and done, Dr. Jayasundera is a clever person,” one analyst said.
However the highly placed sources said that there was unlikely to be any immediate change in Dr. Jayasundera’s position owning to impending elections.
This is not the first time that there has been speculation of the Treasury Secretary quitting. In the past he has either not commented or denied such reports.