LOCAL GOVERNMENTS – THE SLEEPING GIANTS ACTION TIME

Opinion

By Dominic L. J. Seneviratne

The elections are over, chairmen are elected, and budgets are approved. Billions of rupees were spent. More money will be obtained from the public and spent in 2026: Rs 618 billion in the budget. They are the first rank in carrying out what is needed by the public in their territory & closest to the people. There are some 325 municipal and urban councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas. It is time to see what impact their action should have on improving the Quality of Life of the Public (QLP). This would mostly be by New Development Works (NDW), a term used in local governments (LGs). They are stormwater drainage to stop waterlogging, incinerators, cemeteries, parks, medical dispensaries, low-cost housing, public toilets, improving street lighting and minor roads, equipment for pest and mosquito control, and improvements to sewerage disposal and waste removal. The LG will not do what is in this note unless the public pushes the LG. This is where the public comes in. It has two alternatives: 1. Grumble and do nothing, 2. Take action on all fronts. While we do not grudge the new huge offices built with our money in the past solely for the benefit of the employees and displayed on their webs and the many buildings on Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mw, it is time now to stop these. The New Development Works must be given priority.

ACTIONS: Establishing Contacts with LG

This is the most difficult task. All LGs have their name on the office building; some have a name board on the road by their office. Right to Information letters with reminders every 14 working days for an acknowledgement, another 14 working days for a reply and thereafter an appeal to the designated officer (head of LG chief secretary) are the RTI Law. Search the web for the name of the council. Go to its official web. Some will have only one telephone number; others will have more lines to their office and divisions. None has the extension numbers. Visit its weekly ‘public day’ now on Monday and earlier on Wednesday and meet the heads of departments. Collect whatever phone numbers are made available. Ask that all numbers be on its web in one page, in addition to wherever. Send a Right to Information letter asking for ALL telephone and extension numbers in each department. Ring the LG chief secretary or commissioner and the head of the appropriate department relating to what matter you need to speak about. Most of the time they are at the many meetings. Ask the management assistant (earlier clerk) who works for him or her the best time to phone. Only the No. 1 of the LG has a personal assistant. Try for several days at different times. Send a letter to keep on record. Address them by name and designation. Speak to a council/Pradeshiya Sabha member. Form a Rate Payers Association. Release to the press or social media. I have identified 11 items needed by the public and should be on the web. Anyone interested may send me an email to get a copy by email. Tell all to leave politics out and all get together.

Telephones

A properly working telephone system is vital. Callers must help on this. Here are the likely faults. Most LGs have several general lines coming to their telephone exchange. A few of the large LGs would have an automatic system with an operator available if needed by a caller. Many have a manual telephone exchange with a telephone operator. The most common fault is not knowing when a caller cannot get through; only the caller knows. The caller may get a recorded message from SLT, i.e., the lines are busy (Avahira). If the caller reaches the called number, an engaged tone, silence or loud noises may be heard instead of the person needed. The Avahira message is sometimes incorrectly used for telephones no longer connected to SLT. Send letters first to the SLT Area Manager and next to the SLT CEO if correction is not made. Some exchanges would have a “hunting” facility by which the exchange would on its own try its other numbers and connect the caller to a free SLT line. A telephone operator can check, and if this facility is not working, a repair is needed. No person answers the direct line or the extension. He or she may be at the very many meetings, on leave or not want to be disturbed.

Action

Develop a contact with a senior MA (management assistant) on an office extension. To identify faults, ring the exchange number again after working hours, at night/on a public holiday, and if it gives the same recording/tones as in the first, then a repair is needed. If there are more than one number for the LG office, ring each of them and test. Different called numbers may give different messages and tones at different times on different days. A very large municipality with 9 lines had all these faults. Only 3 to 4 of its 9 lines were working, and it was unaware for many months until it was told by a caller first to the duty commissioner admin responsible for this function and when there was no change to the commissioner (not the operator). For automatic exchanges. They were least interested. LG should omit the message “Wait for operator assistance”. Time is wasted. Instead record a message: "Please see our website for the number." Put on a separate page of the web the numbers of all lines to the exchange and all direct lines and extensions. Ask this on public days and by letter to the No. 1 of LG. Tell LG to have a senior officer who overlooks the telephone operator who has to write the reference numbers given by SLT faults. That officer will write letters to SLT if complaints were made that Faults 1212 have failed. There are SLT area managers. Their names, telephone numbers and office addresses are not published. The technicians who come to attend to faults know these of their Sirs. When the direct or exchange telephone line is not answered, complain by an RTI ‘why' letter or speak up on the public day and ask that a nominated person in the office must answer it.

Stamp duty on transfer of lands

To stop a repeat, collected funds from regional councils must be promptly distributed to the local governments where the land is located. This provides funds to carry out NDW. The WP Regional Council held this back for very many years after it changed the law and required distribution. After my many RTI letters from January 2025, it started this last September. Colombo Municipal Council received Rs.1,059,541,228. This included Rs 822,866,822 relating to Homagama and Delkanda land registries. These perhaps were stamp duties paid for Colombo property transfers registered there and not for property transfers in the two, in which case the money must be given to the two pradesiya sabhas. This is awaiting clarification. The information was received from the CMC Treasurer. For several years this money and much more were idling in a current account at the Bank of Ceylon Bambalapitiya Branch. The amount was not disclosed in the regional council's annual audited balance sheet nor provided for RTI letters. This must be happening in other regional councils. This must stop immediately, and the money is used exclusively for NDW.

Action

To prevent a repeat of holding back, the LG should be asked by the public to send an officer monthly to the offices of Land Registration where transfer deeds for lands within its territory are registered by notaries. The officer must make a note of the deed number; stamp duty as in the bank receipt pasted on the deed; notary’s name; and register folio number of any deeds registered since the last visit. LG should be asked to write to the local govt. dept WP in Battaramulla if the money is not sent promptly. The notaries pay to the above bank account of WP Revenue Branch the stamp duty on transfer deeds registered in Colombo as well as in Homagama and Delkanda land registries (why to them is to be clarified) on properties within the Colombo municipality. WP Revenue Branch says since October 2025 it has been sending this money daily to the WP Local Government dept, which in turn pays it to the correct local government immediately. This was implemented from September 2025 and also simplified the refund application procedure after I chased them for 11 months. The WP law requires the local government to apply for each refund. Data for the application must be provided by the Revenue Branch, as it has them. Check the system operating in your province and get your LG to get the money promptly.

Revenue

The main source of LG revenue is rates on property and several licence fees. Unless almost all these are collected, NDW will be neglected. The collection record of most LGs is very low and much arrears remain uncollected.

Action

Get the LGs to make available promptly to the public by its quarterly report (see next para) the amounts of these. The large-scale defaulters’ locations should be published. Peer pressure would improve collections.

Management Information

What is now provided within LGs and for the public is very inadequate; it is ancient, and the skills to design updates are very limited.

Action

Get LG to implement the new quarterly report to be on the LG web within 15 days after the end of the quarter. Include in it the description of NDWs, amounts expensed for each, and the expenses that are more liable to be abused, e.g., buildings for the exclusive benefit of its employees and council/pradeshiya sabha members, passenger vehicles, and overseas travel. As rates and licence fees are a main part of the revenue, disclose in the report the amount received and in arrears and the percentage of one on the other to show collection efficiency. Include received and expended stamp duty. It is to be for this quarter and to date this year in Rs '000. Description of major projects: Scheduled completion delayed for over 3 years.

Form A4

If you send me an email, I will email it to you.

Financials

If you are interested in examining the annual accounts of the balance sheet and revenue and expenditure, a printed book is available in all LGs after it is sent to the auditor general before the due date, 31st March, for the preceding year, January to December. Some LGs issue it for free; others charge a small price. The AGs' report and the reply would be available several months later. The annual accounts have much detail and are designed for an audit by AG. A people's friendly web version with the option of easy access to details would be of much greater use to the public. The Colombo Municipal Council's annual accounts were not put on its web, saying it is ‘too large'. The accounts book for 2023 has 57 pages. A summarised web version of 7 pages using Excel was put, for the first time, on the web. From the 2024 annual accounts, the new CMC deputy treasurer has put the entire book in the Central Accounts and IT section on the web; the entire book was sent to AG. In fact, too much data for the public to handle!! See https.//www.colombo.mc,gov.lk Payments, central accounts & IT: The CMC sophisticated computer system has made this possible.

Action

Persuade other LGs to improve their systems by providing Peoples Friendly annual accounts on their websites. Other LGs with no such systems can use Excel and have the annual accounts, as was done for the 2023 CMC. Several Pradeshiya Sabhas were agreeable but lacked Excel skills. The CMC worksheet computer file for 2023 can be sent by e-mail if requested by any LG. The webs of LGs must be used to disclose information to provide transparency and accountability. The Regional Councils and Local Government Division of the Ministry of Public Administration, etc., Union Place, Colombo, is, in my experience, not interested in helping the public, although its mission includes it.