Power corrupts

Editorial-November 19, 2014

Power corrupts as Lord Acton has famously said. But, it is not only political power that corrupts; the public supply of electricity also does. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is a glaring example. Even some ministers have shed light on its crooked power deals.

Now, it is reported that the participation of 25 CEB engineers at a recent conference organised by the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry in East Asia and the Western Pacific, in South Korea, has cost the public Rs. 20 million. They are also reported to have undertaken to hold the next conference here at a cost of Rs. 500 mn. But, the CEB claims it has no funds to replace old transformers!

This country should be proud of its engineers and scientists. IGP N. K. Illangakoon has recently paid a glowing tribute to the Colombo University School of Computing for designing advanced software at a very low cost to enable the police to match fingerprints of criminals within minutes. Local engineers now undertake the construction of expressways and other such tasks. It is a pity that some of their colleagues who claw their way to high positions in the state service thanks to their remarkable ability to clean politicians’ boots and sandals with their extra-large tongues continue to bring their profession into disrepute. While the police are acquiring new technologies to catch criminals rogues in the garb of state officials get away with their criminal waste of public funds and corrupt deals.

Corruption and wasteful expenditure have eaten into the vitals of all state institutions like a cancer. Even the local government politicians who are not qualified to be employed in the public sector even as labourers go on foreign junkets at the expense of the ratepayers. It was only a few moons ago that we condemned a politician’s demand that the Kalutara Urban Council be declared out of bounds for journalists because the media had revealed that public funds were being spent generously to send councillors on pleasure trips to Bangkok every year.

Spendthrift CEB worthies do not have to be careful with funds. For, they can always increase the revenue of their institution by jacking up electricity tariffs. Thankfully, they have been made to behave in view of the upcoming presidential election.

One may not grudge state officials the pleasure of seeing the world, but the problem is that it is the public who have to foot the bill. Let them spend their personal funds for that purpose.

The government never misses an opportunity to boast that it has expanded the public service which its predecessors tried to prune. But, the question is whether it has any strategy to tackle problems such as wasteful expenditure, dereliction of duty, inefficiency, callousness and various malpractices such as bribery and corruption that most government servants are notorious for.

No government has made a serious effort to liberate the CEB from the clutches of corrupt officials whose rackets have resulted in high power tariffs for the public and losses for the state coffers. No less a person than Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi recently revealed in Parliament a coal racket. Such deals are exposed from time to time, but no follow-up action is taken and the corrupt go scot free. We bet our bottom dollar that nothing will come of the promised probe into the coal scandal.

The practice of state officials going on overseas junkets on various pretexts and organising mega events which do not benefit the country at the expense of the taxpaying public should be brought to an end immediately. Strangely, these issues are not taken up in Parliament where many a lawmaker talks the hind legs off a donkey on frivolous issues.