Is this how we cope with corruption?

This week's goings-on within the Parliamentary Committee probing institutions that are funded by the people's money - COPE, were not lost on the public. Whatever may be that happened (that is why Parliament should allow the media to cover these proceedings), it unfortunately sent the wrong signals to a seething public. It appeared as if a virtual gag order was being issued on public servants divulging what's going on in the public service.

This is the very antithesis of transparency, which is accepted universally as the hallmark of good governance. The matter seemed resolved only the next day, when COPE members from both sides of Parliament came in their numbers and muscled in on the proceedings. The Government's general attitude to the findings of the COPE report has been appalling and inexplicable.

For one thing, most of these adverse findings relate to a period before the incumbent President took office. Then, why is the Government trying to sweep things under the carpet? There must be some good reason for this. Such a response, or the lack of it, only gives rise to suspicion. This is so, not only with the COPE report, but also with the adverse findings of the Auditor General on the gross mismanagement, wastage and corruption in so many Government institutions that run on the public purse.

Take the VAT fraud. Some of the culprits are running their hotels in Dubai with these ill-gotten monies. One suspicion is that those at the helm of the Finance Ministry must take the rap for these crimes against the people of this country, and therefore, there is an interest on their part in putting the lid on this stink.

Now comes another development in an Opposition inspired Vote of No-Confidence on Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda. According to the motion filed in Parliament, Opposition MPs are pointing out to the COPE report that has stated that a finance company in which Mr. Moragoda was a Director owed the Central Bank a phenomenal Rs. 4.7 Billion, when it was bailed out with Rs. 1.4 billion and did not pay it back, along with the interest accrued.

Usually in such instances, it is not only the small-time depositors who face pecuniary problems, but the Directors also fall by the wayside, paying dearly for their bad judgement. But not in this case. Mr. Moragoda went on from strength to strength suffering no inhibitions.

President Ranasinghe Premadasa made him an 'Ambassador' - by fax - in Washington DC when there was already an accredited Ambassador to that country. UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe made him a Cabinet Minister, and the Minister in charge of Privatisation of Public Enterprises. Now, both COPE, and the no-confidence motion against him are replete with charges of misdemeanour.

When a humble Government servant is so accused, he is usually sent on compulsory leave pending an inquiry. Not so, a Cabinet Minister. That the age-old adage; Caesar's wife must be 'above suspicion' and that is so applies to a Cabinet Minister is now old hat, or so it seems. Mr. Moragoda, for his part has asked for a quick debate in Parliament. But is it because he is certain of the Government's majority to have the motion defeated?

With his long-time affinity to the United States of America, he must know the case of former President Bill Clinton and the infamous Monica Lewinsky affair that titillated that nation and rocked his Presidency leading to impeachment proceedings against him in the Senate.

The Democrats won the majority of the House in mid-term elections, and despite the evidence, Senators voted on sharply partisan party lines to acquit the President of putting himself above the law and betraying his oath of office. According to our Political Editor, the Opposition motion is partly political strategy to outwit the Government.

The allegations contained in the COPE report are far more than mere political horseplay. Colossal amounts of money have been creamed off from these public enterprises by people who manage them in trust for the ordinary people of this country.
They must be held accountable, and punished for any wrongdoing. Today there is corruption with impunity. Parliamentary voting does not reflect culpability.

One silver lining is that at least a few men and women of integrity are fighting back to reverse the trend. The country needs them at this hour and they can take heart in the knowledge that the majority of the country's silent law-abiding masses, truly shocked and betrayed by the misdeeds of those who once wielded authority, in their name, are with them all the way.