Public sector needs urgent reforms inclusive of highly-paid officials like Singapore
Consensus was building up for the Proportional Representation system but final details have not emerged so far due to disagreements. However there are indications that a system based on proportional representation and an electorate system will be retaine where members of parliament will represent electorates, according to Deputy Minister of Highways and Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne.
Speaking at a recent panel discussion in Colombo under the topic “Sri Lanka towards 2020″, he said many processes are being considered and noted that the government was also bringing in the Right to Information Bill and the Audit bill.
The Deputy Minister said electoral system reforms’ was a factor promised by the President within 100 days and much debate was going at present regarding such reforms.
Referring to the 19th amendment, he said it reduced the powers of the Executive President and established Commissions, a step in the right direction taken by a minority government. He said there was a government which was in power for a decade that followed a particular economic module driven by public finance. But In January this year there was a change as some expected and some were surprised by the change.
However despite all the bumps on the road it was a change for the better where the democratic spirit had woken up and widened. “We know that during the first 100-120 days the government embarked on a journey to establish a certain framework so as to bring back the rule of law. As the new government came into power there were high expectations. One of the important things that we wanted to bring back was good governance and to set up the executive, the legislature and the judiciary to be independent of each other. The end result was that the most senior judge of the Supreme Court became its Chief Justice.”
Referring to debt repayment, he said it had reached gigantic proportions where government revenue was used to re-pay it. The future economic module has to be based on driving exports, and attracting local and foreign investments in the country. Sri Lanka’s savings rate was low in comparison
to India and China which has 50 per cent of savings of their GDP. “As
there was a huge investment gap we have to encourage foreign investment into the country to propel our economy. Five years after the war Sri Lanka was able to attract only US$1 billion as foreign investment which was 2-3 times lower than Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Why we couldn’t attract investments was because global investors felt Sri Lanka was not attractive enough when compared to other countries in the region. The rule of law becomes an important pillar in that endeavour.”
Referring to the public service, he said the public service has to be radically changed and uplifted. “Public servants were poorly paid and we do not want the best brains to be absorbed in to the public service as it had been politicised over the years. Professionals do not have a conducive environment to work independently from their political masters in the public service. The next phase of the public service has to undergo a radical change to meet present day challenges. As citizens we have a duty to remunerate our public servants better. The private sector cannot grow without the public service. Countries that have advanced in the Asian region and performed well such as Singapore had overhauled the public service. Sri Lanka has distinct advantages when it comes to sea routes that connect the East and the West. Sri Lanka becomes the most efficient port when it comes to shipping goods from and to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.”
He said the government also plans to build soft infrastructure relating to education so that every child will have a higher education. There should also be vocational and professional training so that every child is given an opportunity to improve their skills.
Arjuna Herath, President of the Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, said that investors kept away from Sri Lanka considering the risk factor that prevailed that time. Tender procedures pertaining to projects were done on an ad hoc basis without proper procedure.
Ranil Wijesinhe, a Chartered Accountant and a Management Consultant, said the previous government adopted an anti-privatization policy that was detrimental to the economy. The word privatization became the bitter pill of the masses of the country as it had been repeatedly stated by politicians, he said.