Vibrant public service is a prerequisite for Sri Lanka
Any person elected as a Member of Parliament and who becomes a Cabinet Minister should not have any business interests at all, was a view expressed by State Minister of Finance, Eran Wickramaratne when he spoke as Chief Guest at the CIMA Business Leaders’ Summit 2019 held at the Shangri –La Hotel in Colombo last week.
The State Minister, responding to a message that appeared on the screen on the podium whether the future of business depends on financial professionals, said that he does not think that a country can proceed beyond the public sector and changes had to be made for it to happen.
“We need to think of the role of the public sector when politicians are on one side and the public servants or the bureaucrats on the other side. It is not that a few people who can bring about a change but the society as whole.” He said the management of the public sector depends on rewards and punishment often meted out by a politician that does not happen in the private sector. There isn’t any clear mechanism to penalise the wrongdoing of the public sector. Bureaucrats who work in the public sector know that their rewards and promotions do not depend on their performance. The state sector is so politicised that it has failed to attract qualified professionals.
“Although there are 225 Members of the Parliament in Sri Lanka we need only 30 MP’S today,” he said.
During the last Presidential Election in 2015, many professionals wrote reports on various national policies to be implemented but what one needs today is to focus on core fundamental issues to bring about a change in the future. “People come us and ask for jobs in the state sector and to use our influence to secure such jobs. Such thinking has to change today. There has to be transparency, meritocracy, innovation and hard work if we are to move forward together.” he said.
CIMA President Manohari Abeyesekera said that most CIMA members serve in foreign countries holding important positions. Following the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, she said CIMA Sri Lanka appealed immediately to the CIMA parent body in the UK to help victims of the attack by contributing to the fund initiated by the Archbishop of Colombo.