Financial Times

Public officials told to serve the ‘people’
Buddhist cleric on “come late; go early” attitude in public sector
By Quintus Perera
At a public event chaired by President Mahinda Rajapaksa where public sector officials were briefed on the performance and best practices of public enterprises, a Buddhist monk opened the session with religious observances, and made a salient point on “time and service to the people.”

Ven Atthipujya Kollupitiye Mahinda Sangharakkitha, Viharadhipathi of the Kelaniya Rajamaha Viharaya said while time is important according to Lord Buddha’s teaching more than time, service to the people is more important.

“Public officers neither understood time management nor service (to the nation) as the common practice in the public sector has been ‘come late and go early’,” he said at the Executive Seminar on “Public Enterprises: Performance Governance and Best Practices; Strategies for Success” held at the BMICH last week, organized by the Ministry of Skills Development and Public Enterprises Reforms and Public Enterprises Reforms Commission (PERC).
Some 1,500 public officers attached to government enterprising bodies were addressed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on “Public Enterprises and Mahinda Chintana” and a host of other officials.

It was meant to guide these public officers on how the public enterprises should be run at a profit and efficiency maintaining the desired service to the public. It also spelled out the new responsibility of PERC switching from as an institute privatizing public enterprises to a reformer -- avoiding privatization.
Treasury Secretary Dr P. B. Jayasundara, in a detailed presentation on public enterprises and the need to strengthen them, especially state owned banks, said the Treasury was carrying a massive burden of Rs 50 billion of unpaid bills such as taxation, electricity, EPF and unpaid salaries from various public enterprises.

He said the direct burden on the government is Rs 20 billion this year and out of that Rs 19 billion came from four enterprises – railway, postal, transport and electricity.

Divesting began in 1985 but since 2004 privatization was stopped and now authorities were looking at reforming these institutions to suit the market economy while providing the desired services and also providing public accountability and transparency. Dr Jayasundera said the way state owned banks conducted their affairs profitably and efficiently has proved that reforming these institutions could be carried out successfully.

President Rajapaksa said the people have given him a mandate to be the care-taker of the nation and once he accomplishes his mission, protecting the people’s expectations and according to people’s wishes he would step down, leaving behind a legacy for the future generations of this country to enjoy.
“I am accountable to the people,” he said adding that he didn’t think that the remedy to loss-making public enterprises is privatization and strongly advocated that there should be a meaningful attitudinal change towards the whole concept of public service in eradicating corruption and inefficiency.

In these changes, the government would introduce competitions to select the best public enterprise and best Chairman and in the same way proposed to introduce a scheme to find the worst Public Enterprise and its Head.
Sripathi Suriyaarachchi, Minister of Skills Development and Public Enterprise Reforms said that due to the shortcomings, corruption and inefficiency of public enterprises they are labelled in such manner.

The seminar appeared to be a futile effort to steer public officers to work better. Two speakers -- Guy de Fontgalland, President, Aquinas South Asian Regional Institute of Management and International Advisor to Entrepreneurship Development Institute ofIndia and Dr Mukesh Aghi, President of Universitas 21 Global, were asked to speak at the last session due to insufficient time allocation. Only one third of the public officers who attended the whole event, were around for these presentations.

The seminar – on time management and service to the nation -- started more than one hour late and after the address by the President followed by the tea break at 12.30 pm around half the participants left. After lunch, the numbers further reduced.

Fontgalland said private or public enterprises should operate within the parameters of profitability and viability indicting that those run without profits suck resources that could be used in profit making ventures.

He said in Singapore, which has moved to a first world, developed country from a third world country, the majority of the enterprises are public-owned. Some of these owned and operated by the government such are telecommunications, Sembawang Shipyard, Singapore Airlines, Development Bank of Singapore, Housing Development Board, Singapore Government Investment Corporation, Intraco, National University, etc. All these are highly profitable, viable, transparent and accountable.

He said in Sri Lanka, public enterprises should become Trust Corporations with the 20 million population becoming their unregistered stake-holders with the objective of providing products and services at fair prices.

He said that public confidence should be built on corporate governance with accountability, transparency, efficiency, management change, innovation and all factors which ensure a healthy corporation capable of sustained profits.
During the question time, several members of the audience pointed out the futility of this seminar as the most important part of seminars are attended by a few officials. It was also pointed out that the entire Bauddhaloka Mawatha was jammed with luxury vehicles of public officials leading to BMICH prompting the moderator of the final sesson, P. H.G. Premasiri, Secretary to the Ministry of Skills Development and Public Enterprise Reforms, to say that the Treasury had indicated that there are vehicles in excess of the requirements of the country.

An irate public officer who did not want to be identified told The Sunday Times FT that spending massive public funds on this type of seminars is a national crime and said that there should be a system to obtain feed-back on such seminars to find out whether the desired purpose is achieved. He said that he felt that a colossal number of public services hours were lost by attending these meetings.

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