Trade unions slam Maithripala, UNP
Trade union leaders, at a meeting with a US Embassy official on Thursday, criticised both President Maithripala Sirisena and the former United National Party (UNP)-led former government for the current state of affairs in the country.
“While condemning the President’s move to sack the Prime Minister and prorogue Parliament as unethical, trade union leaders were also critical of the UNP,” said Palitha Athukorala, Secretary of IndustriALL Sri Lanka Council, adding: “Union leaders said the UNP had lost the support of the masses, was unpopular and this was used by the President to resort to the present state of affairs.”
These issues emerged during a discussion between trade unions and Eduardo Garcia, US Embassy’s Economic and Commercial Officer at the Colombo office of the Solidarity Centre, a US-based labour rights group. US Embassy officials had wanted to ascertain the view of the unions on the present crisis and also whether there were any outstanding labour issues vis-a-vis the US GSP concessions.
Mr. Athukorala, who was present at the meeting along with 20 other representatives of key trade unions, said Leslie Devendra, General Secretary of Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, an SLFP union and Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary – Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZGSEU) were among those present.
Union leaders also said the current political impasse was negative in the eyes of the international community and needed to be resolved urgently.
In the meantime, Mr. Marcus’s union also issued a separate statement said the country was slipping into “some form of anarchy” and urged the authorities to call a parliamentary election to “honour the people’s right to sovereignty in electing a government of their choice”.
On Wednesday, the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors, a powerful group of directors representing a cross section of Sri Lanka’s business elite, said they were “gravely concerned” about the current political situation in Sri Lanka. “We urge the country’s political leaders to expeditiously resolve this matter using principles of democracy and good governance and safeguard Sri Lanka’s economy, security and all its people,” it said.
Meanwhile the state machinery has ground to a halt following these political developments.
The implementation of development projects has been suspended as the country is poised to enter a period of policy paralysis, official sources said adding that unused money allocated to ministries and state institutions for those projects this year will go back to the Treasury.
Priority projects introduced to make rapid progress in the rural areas in the next 18 months following the rebuilding of the country’s economy during the past few years have become non entities under the present circumstances, economic analysts disclosed.
Activities have come to near standstill at almost all ministries, state departments, corporations, statutory boards, state institutions and SOEs and the country is poised to enter a period of policy confusion, several heads of institutions and sectional heads said.
According to Finance Ministry statistics at least 50 priority projects were in the pipeline to be implemented from 2015 to 2020.
Progress in the implementation of 19 projects was on schedule, 7 behind schedule and 9 slightly behind schedule while the balance 15 projects were still to be launched, Ministry data showed. Some 12 priority projects out of 50 were scheduled to be completed this year of which a sum of Rs.240.75 billion has been allocated.
However, so far only Rs.166.77 billion has spent on its implementation.
The unutilised Rs.74.08 billion will have to be transferred to the Treasury by relevant ministries as the project implementation has been suspended midway.
The sudden change in administration has created a vacuum in decision-making process in all most all government institutions and SOEs due to the failure of appointing new heads to fill the void created as a result of vacating of posts by previous chief officers.