News
Ministries and state institutions in a state of utter confusion
As the country’s constitutional crisis dragged into its third week, a picture of confusion and disorganisation continued to prevail at many government ministries and state institutions. Cabinet Ministers were being appointed even as of Friday, just prior to Parliament being dissolved.
Up until Friday evening, ministers had been appointed on 11 different occasions. The delay in finalising a Cabinet, coupled with uncertainty over the legitimacy of the new administration, left many ministries and state institutions in a state of utter confusion. Some however, were managing better than others. A significant feature was that the majority of officials we spoke to declined to be identified by name, citing the prevailing volatile political environment.
The Health Ministry for example, had to hurriedly cancel a number of events it had organised over the past two weeks which ministers of the former administration were due to attend. These included a seminar and a health clinic for journalists.
An official at the Health Ministry, however, claimed the decision to suspend the events was because they believed journalists would be far too busy covering matters related to the constitutional crisis and would not be able to attend the events. “Now that a new minister has been appointed, we hope to reschedule the events that we had to cancel due to the political situation,” the official stated.
The Housing Ministry, too, was without a minister and a ministry secretary until Friday, when Wimal Weerawansa finally took oaths as the Minister of Housing and Social Welfare. When the Sunday Times called the ministry on Friday afternoon, officials were scrambling to prepare for the arrival of the newly sworn in minister to assume duties.
Requests by the Sunday Times for clarifications on the status of projects undertaken by the ministry were being passed from one official to another.
Attempts to reach the managing director and the refinery manager of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) did not bear fruit. CPC officials who responded to the queries claimed that the CPC Board of Management had not turned up for work for days.
“The board is no more. We don’t know who will come or when they will be appointed” one CPC staff member remarked. “Please call back next week,” she advised. A CPC trade union official stated that the operations at the oil refinery were going on as normal.
A senior official in the Ministry of Transport was also reluctant to provide lengthy responses to questions posed. This was unlike their usual conduct. Questions were answered in brief sentences without elaboration. Previously, the official would spend time and answer queries at length.
Another top official at a Government authority, whose ministry is yet to see the appointment of a new minister, refused to answer queries over the phone initially. However, following reassurances and persuasion, the official provided extremely brief and cautious responses, and then hung up.
Attempts to call the secretary of the ministry of Tourism failed due to the fact that the staff at the Ministry refused to connect it to the relevant authority. They said that he was busy attending meetings and couldn’t talk and that he has not given anybody his direct contact details.
While some institutions were finding it hard to conduct their activities due to a proper leadership not being in place, others were handling the transition better owing to powers having been delegated properly. A senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that though neither a minister nor a ministry secretary had been appointed (as of Friday afternoon) they were able to carry out day-to-day functions at the ministry as the secretary had earlier delegated his powers to additional secretaries.
“There are still some areas where we need the approval of the ministry secretary. For example, officials cannot be sent overseas for official duties without the secretary’s approval. As such, we are now directing such requests to the Prime Minister’s secretary. So far, things have gone well in that regard and approval has been given swiftly where needed,” the official disclosed.
A similar delegation of powers was in place at the Ministry of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms. Though official functions to hand over land deeds that the ministry had organised had been suspended, an official there said the deeds had still been given to recipients. “We just didn’t do so at a ceremony,” he said. The official though, noted that clarity was needed on areas where cabinet papers need to be presented, pointing out that only a subject minister can present any proposal to Cabinet.