Public sector and politicians lack accountability
Managing the private sector, the public sector and politics is totally different to each other where considerations differ in managing politics as opposed to the private sector, said Eran Wickramaratne State Minister of Finance.
Eran Wickramaratne
Speaking as the Chief Guest at the Great Manager Awards 2017 held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo this week, he said there is a huge paradigm shift in politics unlike in the private sector where ‘you destroy your successor”.
In the private sector, however ‘you build your successor’ and comparisons doesn’t make any sense.
He said a great opportunity exists in recognising great managers for their high performance. However promotions and rewards are not necessarily based on performances in the public sector and there aren’t any provisions either for penalising bad performance.
As a result recruitment to the state sector becomes politicised and fails to attract the best educated professionals. Those who work in bureaucracies know that their rewards and punishments are not based on performances but on alignment to power structures. “I said all this not to look down on politics or on the public sector but to distinguish the differences that exist in them.”
The State Minister further said that accountability in the public sector was lacking and had to be improved. Referring to the collapse of the garbage mountain at Meethotamulla where 32 people perished, he said no politician or an official took responsibility for that disaster. So far no one had taken responsibility for the incidents that happened in Digana – Kandy where several properties and people were affected. “The attitude of the public sector is why risk but to play safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, the following were the winners of the Great Manager Awards: Jaykay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd, Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd, Brown & Co Plc and Bharti Airtel Lankan Ltd. Great Managers for Driving Results & Execution: Mangala Bandara – Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd, Carmen Ranwalage -Bharti Airtel Lanka PLC, Sanjaya Nissankage -Brown & Co PLC, Ajith De Silva -Brown & Co PLC, Jayalath Kumarasinghe – Jaykay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd, Thusara Perera – Jaykay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd and Riaz Saban -Pure Life Solutions (Pvt) Ltd.
Great Manager for Aligning Organization Vision: Udaka Kappagoda- Bharti Airtel Lanka Ltd, Hamamali Senarathna – Siam City Cement Lanka Ltd.
Great Manager for Enhancing People Performance: Mahalingam Yohendrakumar – A. Baur & Co (Pvt) Ltd, Buddhi Dharmasena – Jaykay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd, Sanjeeva Chlakumara – Siam City Cement Lanka Ltd.
Great Manager for Building Team Effectiveness: Saman Lalith Samaratunge – Akbar Brothers Ltd, Indika S. Perera – Hameedia Group. Great Manager for Sustaining Individual Credibility: Channa Munasinghe – Bharti Airtel Lanka Ltd, Nilantha Premakeerthi – JayKay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd, Gayan Bogahawatte – Jaykay Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd, Dammika Bandara – Markss HLC (Pvt) Ltd. Great Millennial Manager: Thuwan Surajdeen – Barista Coffee Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
CEO of Colombo Leadership Academy Riaz Hassen said the award is for Great Managers who are results oriented.