Lobby

You would expect all the 225 legislators in Parliament to speak in one voice when an issue like corruption is under discussion, but when the much anticipated, controversial COPE report was taken up for debate, it became more a blame-game than a united call to put an end to the rot that has set in at state-run institutions.

Government members were on the defensive from the very start of the two day adjournment debate which began on Wednesday, doing their best to wash their hands of the dirt that has been brought to light in the report saying ,“It did not happen during our time.” Opposition members were equally eager to push the ball back into the Government’s court and pin the blame on them for all the mess while conveniently forgetting that they are equally responsible for the corruption in the state sector.

After all it is many of these same politicians, whether in the UNP or the UPFA who have been holding ministerial positions starting from 1994 even though power has shifted from one side to the other, several times. Despite government and ministerial changes, the issue of corruption has only grown worse under successive regimes and the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has only corroborated what the Auditor General’s Department and independent anti corruption organisations have been saying for many years of the worsening corruption in the country.

But even a report compiled by the MPs themselves, which is a serious indictment on the entire Legislature, does not seem to have opened the eyes of some of the members, some of whom chose to adopt a “holier than thou” attitude and to blame it all on the officials.

Government members, to a large extent, painted themselves as the innocent, gullible politicians who had been misled by their officials resulting in millions and billions being lost to the country.

But how did the Board of Investment (BOI) continue to pay nine million rupees each month as rent for its premises at the World Trade Centre in Colombo for more than eight years while its own premises in Fort was crumbling without any of the ministers, under whose purview the Board came, being aware of it?

How did the Bank of Ceylon fail to take measures to recover outstanding non performing loans valued today at over Rs 13 billion minus the interest and continue to give fresh loans to defaulters over the years without any of the successive finance ministers being privy to this?

Did these and many other glaring irregularities such as total disregard for government tender procedure, operating without proper corporate plans for years and wastage, take place only because of the inefficiency and corruption of officials while the ministers were blissfully ignorant of these serious happenings?

Several ministers tried to belittle the contents of the report. The fact that there was no time frame referred to in the report submitted to Parliament on January 12 was a major issue for several ministers including Dinesh Gunawardena, John Seneviratne and Susil Premjayantha but it is evident from a close examination of the report that it is easy to find under whose tenure in office some of these colossal acts of corruption, irregularities and mismanagement occurred.

Even though some of the politicians attempted to make such excuses, the Chairman of COPE Wijedasa Rajapakse did not mince his words when it came to his turn to speak.

“ This report is an indictment on all 225 of us who are here. It is not because we have all robbed the country but because we are the custodians of public finances and we have failed to do our duty in this regard over the years,” Mr. Rajapakse told the House.

His was one of the very few intelligent and honest voices heard among the babble of ordinary and routine arguments that have become all too common and have come to be treated with disdain by the public.

Whether his appeal to MPs to speak with a clear conscience on this issue and speak honestly to their voters would make any impact is doubtful but his call to make public the sittings of this committee so that the allegations against high officials and politicians can be made public and not heard in camera so as to protect the miscreants.

This suggestion got the staunch backing of JVP Colombo district MP Sunil Handunneteti who was one of the several JVP MPs who have been trying in recent months to champion the case against the growing corruption in the country.

“If a germ is to be destroyed, then the sunlight must be let in. If we open the committee proceedings to the media, we will be able to kill the germ. With the publicity that this report has generated, we can already see some officials changing their attitudes,” Mr.Handunnetti said.

One person who took the COPE report rather lightly was the newly appointed Minister Naveen Dissanayake. “This kind of report has been presented to Parliament before .It is not such a big thing,” he said.

Instead, he accused certain persons of trying to further their political agenda by using this report to sling mud at the government. Minister (Non-Cabinet) of State Revenue and Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya chose to describe the whole debate as a “pus wedilla” –with the only intention being to embarrass the government.

At the start of the debate which was moved by Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera, he said time should be given to those members against whom there were specific allegations to reply but unfortunately there were no takers to this offer.

Ven. Aturaliye Ratana Thera of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) said that sitting on the government benches or on the opposition benches cannot be used as an excuse to escape the responsibility that falls on them. “Members on both sides, from all the main parties have been in power from time to time and they have to face up to to their responsibility,” he added. One time chairman of COPE, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama who wound up the debate like most other governments speakers did his best to play down the contents of the report and said some opposition MPs had given the impression that the BOI moved to their very expensive premises during his time as Investment Promotion Minister but it was not so.But as to why he did not try to remedy the situation and not move to a cheaper location or get back to the old BOI premises he did not say. And likewise the fate of this COPE report too is likely to be the same other reports that have preceded it--that of being confined to the book shelf in the parliament library only to be used from time to time as ammunition to fire at political opponents.

COPE report: Just another means for political blame game