Reinventing the wheel
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When Sri Lanka’s National Policy on Migration, to enhance the governance and management of labour migration, was being reviewed a few years ago, after it was first introduced in 2008, officials and civil society activists began deliberating on a reworked policy to suit current needs. This process went through the tenure of three presidents and three governments until the process was completed and ratified by the Cabinet in September 2023.
“Every time a new President was elected, we had to change the policy which always became a work-in-progress. Thankfully after a third attempt and a new president, we were able to complete the task and announce it in September 2023,” said an official involved in the policy formulation discussions.
One of the challenges that policymakers and public servants have, when presidents and governments change, is that the politicians want to change policies and furthermore create new institutions at a huge cost to the Treasury, battling scarce government resources. Billions of rupees are spent on creating new institutions after dismantling the old ones as a game of musical chairs is played every time a new president and government is elected. Then consider the new office space that is required again at a huge cost. Commissions of inquiry to probe fraud and corruption are appointed to examine the work of the previous regime and vice versa. This current administration is most likely to set off another inquiry to probe corruption and mismanagement of the previous rulers and, mark my words, when the term of the current rulers ends, a new probe will take off under the next administration.
Thus committees are appointed at huge costs and commissions of inquiry are appointed, again at huge costs. Take for example the inquiry into the Easter Sunday attack in April 2019, several committees and commissions were appointed and still the Catholic Church is not satisfied with the results as none of these probes has named the mastermind behind the attack. Key officials are sacked by one regime and brought back during a regime change.
Now another inquiry is to be launched by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the behest of the Catholic Church. Rather than reinvent the wheel, would it be possible for a new committee of inquiry to reexamine the proceedings and recommendations of previous inquiries into this disaster and then prepare new recommendations, instead of launching an entirely new probe at huge cost? Let us wait for a decision of the new government to be elected after the November 14 poll.
As I pondered over the issue of the futility – in terms of enormous cost to the public – of new committees, commissions and new departments and institutions which eventually leads to the next government dismantling this infrastructure and creating newer ones, again at huge cost -, I walked into the kitchen to fetch a mug of tea, and was drawn to the conversation at the gate between the trio and Aldoris, the choon- paan karaya. “Aldoris, chandey kohomada?” (Aldoris, how is the election), asked Serapina. “Hondai, hondai… sahodarayo dinnay” (Good, good… the sahodarayas will win), he replied. “Egollanta kalayak avashyayi honda weda tikak karanna” (They need more time to do some good work), noted Mabel Rasthiyadu.
“Egollo balayeta avey masa dekakata udadi. Eth janathawa prathipala illanawa. Eka asadaranai” (They have been in power for just two months and people demand results. That’s unfair), said Kussi Amma Sera.
Indeed with one of the quietest election campaigns in history in progress where it’s only the ruling party that is having huge rallies while the opposition is concentrating on pocket meetings and social media canvassing, it’s clear that the ruling National People’s Power will win the polls. The only question is by how many seats.
As I walked back to the office room to continue my column, the home phone rang. With the use of mobile phones, it’s rare that fixed lines are used but in my case I have told all my friends, when calling in the morning, to call on the land line as it’s still a useful mode of communication. This time it was my jolly-mood economist friend, Sammiya (short for Samson) who was calling on this Thursday morning.
“I say I was wondering about this practice of a new government where new committees, commissions, new departments or institutions and new office space are acquired. This is a huge cost to the government and it becomes a merry-go-round when another new administration comes in. Can’t we continue with the same infrastructure?” he asked
“I was also thinking on the same lines. Every time a new administration comes in, new brooms are taken out, new appointments are made and often institutions that have done a lot of work, irrespective of the role of the political authority at that time, are dismantled sorely for political purposes. Good and honest work needs to be appreciated by incoming rulers, sustained and continued,” I said. We then discussed many issues on this topic before winding up with a promise of meeting over a cup of coffee in coming weeks.
With new committees, institutions and political authorities comes a requirement of space to house these new bodies. The BMICH is often used to house presidential commissions and inquiry committees. Maybe some of the 30-odd government bungalows that were used by ministers and now released to the state could be repurposed as office space for new institutions or even old institutions that require space rather than hiring new space.
In the meantime, the government is still trying to recover a deposit of Rs. 660 million given to a new building at Rajagiriya to house the Ministry of Agriculture during the tenure of a former government. This building belonging to the husband of a film actress was never used and this irregular act is subject to a probe by the Attorney General.
In terms of realising the objectives, intentions and aims of the new government to usher in a new era of prosperity for the nation and its people, which I think must be the mission of the new regime, it would be useful to continue any good work, that is if there is any, by the previous administration (like the work related to the IMF’s bailout package) instead of reinventing the wheel. The country needs statesmanship in the conduct of affairs of the state, not one-upmanship or a political authority trying to outdo the previous regime and indulging in unnecessary and costly changes.
As I sipped my second mug of tea, I wound up my column hoping that the current set of rulers would not commit the sins of their predecessors, as they (new regime) have vowed to engage in an entirely new process of clean and honest government with reduced cost to the state.
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