| While election monitoring groups look on helplessly, the current parliamentary election campaign continues with the unabated misuse of state property.
Transparency International (TI) which set up a separate unit to monitor such cases of abuse has received 110 complaints of misuse of state property including misuse of vehicles and use of local council offices, as party offices, over the past few weeks.
However monitoring bodies claimed though they received complaints on misuse of Ministry vehicles, it was very difficult to confirm them.
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| State vehicles being used for election propaganda in Ampara (L) and (R) Hambantota. Pix by Wasantha Chandrapala and J. Weerasekera |
Shan Wijetunga, Director Communications of TI explained several local council offices in Gampaha, Moneragala and the Badulla districts were seen covered with blue flags of the UPFA.
He said 90% of the complaints regarding abuse of state property they received had been found to be correct.
“The Ceylon Electricity Board vehicles, Parliamentary vehicles and Education Ministry vehicles were among the most misused according to complaints and our investigations”, he said.
The Director, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Rohana Hettiarachchi said they had received 5 complaints on misuse of state property amidst other complaints. “We know state property, especially vehicles have been misused during election campaigns but to identify such an incident separately is very difficult” he said.
“If a Ministry vehicle was used for the election campaign, the Ministry would have records stating the vehicle has been allotted to a particular Ministry officer, such as the co-ordinating secretary to the Minister, or the record would read the vehicle had been sent on a particular assignment”, he explained.
Spokesperson, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), Keerthi Tennakoon said there were many instances of state property being misused during the election campaign even though the number of complaints they received was only 13. “The Education Ministry was the worst offender as per misuse of state property”, he said.
Commenting on the allegations, Education Ministry secretary Nimal Bandara said other than the vehicles given to the Minister, other vehicles were not being used for the election campaign.
“If the officers take Ministry vehicles to support the Minister, it’s very difficult to stop them. But if vehicle numbers are provided, we will investigate the matter”, he added.
Secretary of the Ministry of Power and Energy Mr. M.M.C. Ferdinando said the Ceylon Electricity Board was not politically aligned. It is an independent body which implements state policy. Therefore, allegations of the CEB misusing state property would be false he said. “We don’t receive CEB vehicles for even Ministry requirements” he added.
Mr. Ferdinando explained, “the Minister and his co-ordinating secretaries have vehicles allotted to them and they use those vehicles. It’s very difficult to put restrictions for that. If they were using other vehicles, we could take action against it”.
“If anyone provides us with the vehicle numbers, we could look into it”, he said.
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