Editorial

Promising rice from the moon was the nadir of election promises in this country. That clearly over-the-top election pledge made in 1970 to woo the voters has yet to be matched.

Today’s voters need to be somewhat wary over these often broken promises, many of which still get into the manifestos of contending parties. The distrust of these manifestos is such that the ruling United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) does not call its election manifesto a manifesto any more. It is titled “The Five Point Plan — A new country in 60 months”, but is it a case of the same old arrack in a new bottle?

Manifestos are important, say political analysts because they give the party that makes these promises, and if elected to form the Government for the next five years, an opportunity to check list if they are delivering on what they promised the people — as a result of which they are in public office. That, however, is an idealistic view and a bit stretched from reality. Once elected, finding a copy of their manifesto in their own party office can be an elusive task.

The Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe 100-day programme put forward for the January 8 Presidential election was a document taken more seriously than others. For one, it had the backing of a conglomerate of parties of different hues, the closest we have had to a National Government. For another, it had a definitive time-table. Once elected, they could not keep entirely to that time-table but the reasons for this were largely genuine. Some of the promises were deliberately kept aside as well, like the Right to Information Law which was drafted but not presented to Parliament, but on the whole, the time-table kept the incumbents largely honest in delivering to the people what they promised.

For the forthcoming general elections in eight days, the UPFA (United People’s Freedom Alliance) comes on top with the list of promises made. Its seemingly endless list, as a report in the Business Times section highlighted last week, would cost more than Rs. 400 billion on just a few itemised promises. The minimum wage of a Government servant is to be Rs. 25,000 a month (total cost to the Budget is Rs. 32 billion); an increase in the CoL allowance to Rs. 10,000 (Rs. 13 billion); free gas cooker and cylinder to Samurdhi beneficiaries plus a monthly allowance (Rs. 11 billion); a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 to pre-school teachers (Rs. 250 million); an allowance to graduates during their internship (Rs. 150 million) – the list goes on. Our Economic Analyst quite appropriately quoted the late Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who referred to Sri Lankan elections as an auction of non-existent resources. In his piece last week our columnist said, “Economic resources are scarce, while extravagant public expenditure without the means of mobilising resources is not viable, destabilising and catastrophic”.

The UNFGG is a little more modest in its promises, emphasising good governance as the cornerstone of any administration and the fundamental platform for its stewardship of the country. It is a healthy sign that both the UNFGG and the UPFA have laid emphasis on the education and health sectors. Neither side is too forthcoming where the revenue is to come to fulfil their megawatt promises. That is ‘top secret’ only to be sprung as a surprise to the hapless voters after an election.

The JVP is not making sweeping promises – It does not have to because its aim is not to form a Government but, put pithily “Aandu hadanna” translated to mean – not to form Governments, but to ‘make’ whatever Government is in power. Yet, even if their manifestos are far-fetched vote grabbing gimmicks, political parties need a road map to follow once in power and place. They must have a guide to know what they promised the people.

General elections will be held once in five years since the 19th Amendment and while politicians in power think it is insufficient a period for long-term plans, the people think otherwise. While “continuity” is the hallmark of the ruler, the long periods are the seeds for authoritarian rule, the ‘disconnect’ with the people — all by discarding the nicely worded manifestos into the dustbin the day after the votes are counted.

Not so Tender Issues
One of the main criticisms of the former regime was its overriding preference for unsolicited tenders. This practice became so prevalent that open bids were only called when the contracts involved relatively low amounts of money. With no competition, there was no way to determine whether the cost or quality of various projects was optimum. Allegations of corruption were rife.

It was expected that the new Government, with its focus on good governance, would reverse the trend. But the system has got so corrupted that there are allegations that senior officials in ministries and Government departments are now riddled with corruption, all of them spoilt by multinational corporations and their multi-millionaire local agents. Take the most recent case where even a ministry in which the minister is considered above-board.

An attempt was clearly made in the initiative to select a supplier of coal for the Lakvijaya coal power plant in Norochcholai. The contract is massive: Rs. 50 billion involving 6,750,000 tons of coal over a three year period. Tenders were called and committees of officials perused the bids. The minister was kept informed but he largely distanced himself from the selection process.

Despite this, the process collapsed amidst a volley of claims and counterclaims. An unsuccessful bidder directly influenced the Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (SCAPC) to change a tender specification after bidding was concluded, financial proposals examined and bidders ranked in order of merit.

Four of the bidders have now appealed, the Appeals Board de-camped saying there was too much pressure on it and the matter is before President Maithripala Sirisena for a solution – channeled by the distraught Minister himself.

Has the rot set in so deep that Government institutions have forgotten how to conduct a fair and open, bidding process? Or are they not permitted to do so? Even five years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka continues to underperform economically. Where are the systems in place? The stakes are high and so is the stink in Government tenders. The public cannot be made to suffer indefinitely for the selfish aspirations or inefficient bumbling of a few.