CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

BRIBERY COMMISSION, AG'S OFFICE and ACCOUNTABILITY

ASOKA S.

Sri Lanka has no shortage of government sponsored entities. Fisheries corporation, salt corporation, fertilizer Corporation, bribery commission, AG's office and so on. These institutions are sometimes called white elephants which in short means they are a national liability. One can see nicely maintained plush cars with neat lettering roaming around with paid drivers and even body guards at times. All this is paid for by the everyday tax payer. Now remember some of these tax payers can hardly make a living with their own salaries but sustain a barrage of top tier, 2nd tier and 3rd tier bosses and their staff.

None of the successive governments have ever held these "bosses" accountable for their salaries and perks. For example the bribery commissioner need to report to Lankan people how many political crooks they have prosecuted every year. How much money thus they have recovered on people's behalf. Or the Attorney General need to report to Lankan people how many cases they have prosecuted and brought justice to the Lankan people. Commissioner of Motor Traffic need to report to Lankan people what he has done to make the roads safe, to make it easier to obtain a drivers license and how much revenue he has generated on behalf of Lankan people. I am sure they must be submitting reports but does anybody hold them accountable for results. The simple answer is a big NO.

Now recently AG accuses that the Bribery Commission should never have been empowered to prosecute political rogues and thieves. Who cares about the technicalities of who prosecutes who. Just give some results to the Lanka people justify the chair warming they do and the money they earn.

A very reasonable simple question every tax payer in Lanka is entitled to ask is "just how many crooks has the bribery commission put behind bars?" If not the next question is "are they competent to do the job they are given?" PHD's, Professorships or other name recognition of the Commission members is not what they get paid for. They need to bring some national thieves to justice. As simple as that. Or somebody who is better competent (not necessarily qualified) need to take over.

As a nation, as long as we do not hold top officials accountable for results we will never ever get our country out of the hole. The Lankan people will continue to suffer and waste millions of hard cash.

Of course in the private sector there is a fitting punishment for those who don't deliver results. It is called firing. If a private company is filled with a bunch of high ly qualified people but idlers, very soon the company will go belly up. I don't mean any disrespect for people with PHD's but my point is our country attaches too much importance to qualifications but not applications.

Isn't that exactly what has happened to many of our government sponsored establishments? They have gone belly up. But nobody gets fired that easy.

These are some of the questions the well paid and perked 107 ministers can spend their time on. Or I forgot..They don't get fired that easy either, so why bother...?

ASOKA S.

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