Good governance forms the nucleus of a strong civil society whose consensus decisions must be respected
View(s):Good governance should be the nucleus of a civil society where the voices of the people are given prominence at all levels and decisions are made and implemented based on this discourse. Dwelling on his book “Construction Steering along the Aphorism of Good Governance” Dr. Chandana Jayalath made the above comment, when the book was launched this week at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Institute. Dr. Jayalath, a product of the Moratuwa and the Open Universities, is a Quantity Surveyor by profession who has written several books pertaining to the construction industry and has worked in several countries in various capacities in this sector. In his book he points out that governance means dealing with how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and through this process decisions are made and implemented.
Since the January 8 elections last year the topic of good governance emerged because bad governance is one of the root causes of all evils within this society. The book speaks on how there were no public hearings at least for large scale projects where public money is spent, and the information on such activities were not accessible to those who were actually affected by the enforcement of those decisions. It has indicated that the informal way of decision-making leads to corrupt practices resulting in agony, trauma and distrust amongst the masses. In such situations the government pressurised the public to tolerate impropriety and lax procurement culture aggravated malaise and large scale disarray.
On the sidelines of the launch, Dr, Jayalath told the Business Times that he has dealt in the book on the constant media attention made to the issue of cost overruns that cropped up in projects involving politicians and government officials. While corruption is very difficult to pin down mainly because the involved parties only deal with hard cash, the situation would look like a ‘technical’ cancer connected with the supply chain. The widespread perception was the appropriation of the state machinery by the elites to serve their own interests stood by the crisis of politicisation, he said.
He said that his professional background of quantity surveying had an influence on the arguments cited in the book relating to construction cost overrun, corruption and similar aspects. He has emphasised that one of the important aspects is that the rule of law should to be honoured and that there should be scrupulous respect for the law at every level of governmen. The book also discusses the compensation for people affected due to development projects, empowering people and the work force, national role of construction steering, consensus building, mediatory efforts, role of professionals, watchdog role of media, and importantly – whistle blowing. - (QP)