Events following the acid attack on Central Province's Chief Auditor,
Lalith Ambanwela one month back have been proceeding as expected, with some arrests but amidst growing public dissatisfaction both at the slowness of the investigations and with the manner in which wider issues with regard to the overall functions of the Auditor General are being left untouched. Continuing protests by auditors island wide have buoyed public demands for an effective investigation into the attack which has left Mr Ambanwela critically ill in hospital and sapped the confidence of his colleagues in the performance of their public duties.

Thursday's letter by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to Inspector General of Police, Lucky Kodithuwakku emphasises this point, with President Kumaratunga requesting that the investigations be expedited and stating that "she is not satisfied that the police has taken adequate steps to bring the culprits and high officials who are supposed to have aided them, to justice."

Mr Ambanwela had been investigating particular frauds in the Provincial Education Ministry during the regime of the previous government, which amounted to nearly 40 million rupees in total, including defective purchases and bribes paid to ministry officials. These were irregularities bypassing the internal auditor of the ministry which were being extensively inquired into by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and in regard to which the Chief Education Secretary and the Provincial Education Director of the Central Province had been noticed to appear before the PAC. Mr Ambanwela had also been investigating the question of abuse of state vehicles during the December elections which lends a certain ring of poetic justice to the letter that President Kumaratunga has seen fit to forward to the IGP this week.

Soon after the attack on Mr Ambanwela, this column commented on its wider implications as far as issues of public accountability and processes of governance are concerned in this country, particularly pointing to significant failings in the law as it presently relates to the functions of the Auditor General as well as to the disparity between the theoretical constitutional protection afforded to the office and the reality. Officers of the Auditor General's Department, who wished to remain unidentified, have meanwhile made further representations, elaborating on these failings in a manner that deserves specific mention.

Chief on this list comes the need to amend the law in order that the public are able to claim the right to investigate the manner in which public funds are being utilised, which was indeed, the primary reason why the Central Province's chief auditor is presently in intensive care in hospital. The law, as it presently stands, does not specifically allow an individual to petition the Auditor General directly regarding financial malpractices in state institutions. Neither is there provision for a member of the public to obtain audit reports regarding the same. If, for example, there had, indeed, been provision regarding the same and given the magnitude of the fraud which had taken place in the Central Province Education Ministry, the involvement of public spirited individuals as well as civil society organisations might well have been far greater, thus shifting the focus away from Mr Ambanwela as one singularly isolated crusader. While it should be noted in this connection that the proposed Freedom of Information Act would greatly improve the present situation as far as access to financial information is concerned, this would be one more reason why this proposed law should be passed into statute as quickly as possible. The prompt publication of audit reports in order to ensure more effective public involvement into the nature and scope of financial accountability in public institutions is also identified as a priority.

Auditors have meanwhile represented specific demands that relate to the streamlining of the Department of the Auditor General and the strengthening of its powers. Underlining these demands is the need to codify the numerous regulations and laws that relate and regulate the power and functions of the Auditor General into one Act. Additionally, it is pointed out that the Auditor General should be given specific authority to ensure that disobedience by any public officer to any of its directions be visited with specific punishment as provided for by law. This should be aggravated in the case of public officers who fail to attend audit inquiries or refuse to divulge necessary information to the auditors.

Prevalent regulations provide that all chief accounting officers and accounting officers should ensure that every assistance is given to audit officers and see that audit queries are not only properly investigated but also that defects are promptly corrected. Where an audit officer raises audit queries, it is provided that at least an interim report should be prepared if a final reply is not immediately forthcoming. An officer meanwhile is made personally responsible for any loss caused to the government by his or her own delay, negligence, fault or fraud and is requited therefore to make good that loss. It is also provided that the internal audit units should operate independently of the ministries and departments. Here again, one sees the need to streamline the functioning of the internal audit units as demonstrated in the Central Province Education Ministry where manifest irregularities which Mr Ambanwela had been investigating, had apparently bypassed the internal auditor. It is imperative therefore that the law provides for formal inquiry and swift disciplinary action against errant internal auditors of this nature.

These changes demanded to the law relating to the powers and functions of the Department of the Auditor General in Sri Lanka cannot obviously be accomplished by a mere apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators of the acid attack on Mr. Ambanwela, important as the latter is for the purposes of deterrence. What is needed is a thorough structural overhaul of the regulatory framework in reference to the office of the Auditor General. This too, should manifestly be a priority for the future.

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