Unfinished businesses
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Choon-paan karaya, Aldonis, came merrily down the lane on this Thursday morning with his tuk-tuk blaring the popular baila hit ‘Sumihiri Pane’, quite popular amongst the trio too.Stopping at the gate where the trio had gathered, he beamed and asked: “Madam, ada monawada mata denna puluwan (Madam, what shall I sell you today)?”
“Apita maalu paan denna (We need maalu paan),” said Kussi Amma Sera, speaking on behalf of her two friends. “Ei ada oya bohoma santhosen (Why are you so happy today),” asked Mabel Rasthiyadu.
“Naadu haal hingayak thiyenawanam, kattiya maalu paan kanna patan ganiwi (Well, if there is a shortage of nadu rice, people will start eating maalu paan),” he said, laughing.
“Matanam buth wenuwata paan kanna bae (I say, you can’t replace rice with bread),” said Serapina firmly.
“Mama eh vihiluvak karae Madam (I was joking, Madam),” he said with a smile, adding: “Aanduwata loku prashnayak, mae nadu aduweema (The government is having a serious problem with a shortage of nadu rice).”
“Prashney visadanney nethuwa, aanduwa issala aanduwata dos kiyanawa nadu aduwak athi-kara kiyala (Without resolving the problem, the government is blaming the former government for causing the shortage),” said Kussi Amma Sera. “Eka aththa. Katawath egollange nidahasata karunu ahanna oney nae. Egollo prashney visadanna-oney (That’s right, no one wants to hear excuses, they need to solve the problem),” noted Serapina.
Kussi Amma Sera walked into the kitchen with a maalu paan for me, just as I had come in to collect my mug of morning tea. At the same time, the home phone rang. It was Kalabala Silva, the often agitated academic who was calling this morning.
“I was watching a series of stories on a local TV channel about the number of projects that have been abandoned after billions of rupees have been spent from tax money,” he said. “Yes, this is truly a national tragedy and a disgrace…..after all, it’s the people’s money that is being squandered by politicians and errant officials,” I said.
“There are scores of half completed buildings, half completed roads, unfinished bridges, unfinished culverts, unfinished school buildings and even unfinished community halls,” he said.
We then discussed the state of the country under the new rulers, expressing the view that the governing NPP administration is not finding it easy particularly since the electorate is demanding swift action on corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement of previous governments which would require a lot of time to gather evidence and eventually take action. In fact, the President on Monday held a discussion with the Attorney General and other officials to ascertain the progress of these cases and the need to expedite them.
Unfinished state businesses! Well there are plenty of them across Sri Lanka. As we stated earlier, this is a national crime and tragedy, for it’s the people’s money that has been frittered away by the ‘crooks (politicians and their henchmen-officials)’ without any accountability.
It’s not only half-constructed projects but also businesses such as the losses incurred by the failed budget carrier Mihin Lanka or the Grand Hyatt Colombo, a controversial 47-storey development led by Canwill Holdings Ltd. This project was first launched in 2003 as Ceylinco Celestial Residencies under the Ceylinco Group before being derailed when that group collapsed in the wake of the 2008 Golden Key financial crisis, thus halting construction. The then-Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, through the Underperforming Enterprises Act, took over the project in 2012 and rebranded it as the Grand Hyatt Colombo and it remains unfinished as of January 2025.
Mihin Lanka, a low-cost carrier launched by the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration in 2007, suffered huge losses and thus drained public funds. After it was wound up in 2016, it still owes Rs. 3.17 billion each to the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank.
In the cases of dozens of unfinished businesses, the authorities need to address the question of whether those who handled and were responsible for these projects need to be rounded up and charged under criminal or civil laws. After all billions of rupees have been squandered away and the culprits are still at large. These should be treated as offences….…not merely abuse of power and misusing state resources.
What is urgently required is for a national audit to be undertaken of all these unfinished projects with a circular issued to ministries and government departments ascertaining the status of these projects, how much was spent, the politicians who sanctioned these projects, the officials involved particularly those who gave the orders and directives, etc. This is one area the people have been demanding action from their rulers for many years.
It’s not an easy task to conduct a national audit but the National Audit Office (Auditor General’s Department) has the resources to undertake a gigantic exercise of this nature and the authorities need to get cracking immediately on this work. The main reason the NPP was voted into power and won handsomely at the national elections was due to large scale abuses of power, corruption and mismanagement by previous administrations.
We repeat – a national audit should be undertaken of all the unfinished businesses and projects and politicians and officials, named and shamed for such wrongdoing (of course, with enough evidence to back the claims). The audit should take into account whether there are funds from these projects still remaining in government departments and, if possible, complete these projects using the remainder of the voted funds.
In one particular project, a temporary bridge in a village had been destroyed to make way for a new bridge which was launched with much fanfare by the politicians. The new bridge is not even half completed, has been shelved and is in ruins, while residents are lamenting the loss of the earlier temporary bridge since they don’t have a bridge to cross the stream.
These are national crimes and someone has to pay for them. Billions of rupees have gone down the drain and if such issues never arose, Sri Lanka’s tax revenue won’t be under pressure as it is now.
As I wound up the column with a second mug of tea, my wish-list is for the authorities to work on these unfinished businesses and ascertain whether they could be resumed or action taken against the wrongdoers.
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