By Elmo De Silva-June 2, 2016, 9:20 pm
I refer to the very thought provoking article written by Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri ( Dr.J.R.) titled The economy and corruption- the nexus, appearing in the Island Newspaper . Having worked in some of the most corrupt govt. institutions I would like to add a little to this, though volumes can be written.
Before I proceed further, I would like to reveal the perception of corruption from the angle of those who take bribes. I once asked a senior officer in a department that I severed, why officers take bribes. He replied me in Sinhalese as follows, which took me aback. "galagane yane gangin dhothak gaththathama mokada whene, sir." ( what does it matter if one took a handful of water from a river that is in spate ). This shows how corruption pervades a large section of the fabric of society and that society’s conscience is almost dead with regards to corruption. It must be emphasized that there are very honest and honourable officers in these departments, but the numbers are fast declining partly because no action is taken against the dishonest.
In my view corruption takes many forms.
1) Speed money. This is to expedite the process of finalising a document, giving a water, electricity or telephone connection, a copy of a document etc. There is an unwritten, unpublished, what I call, Bribe Tariff. This varies from Rs. 100 to Rs.10,000 depending largely on the urgency and the type of job to be done.
2) Bribes resulting in the loss of Revenue. Depriving the Govt ( read public ) of revenue. This takes place in cargo clearance due to misclassification, under valuation, wrongful inspection smuggling etc. Or it can be the refraining from tax collection. In such cases the giver and receiver both benefit, making it very difficult to detect.
3) Waste of public money. This will include a variety of situations, such as awarding of tenders for a consideration, maintaining jumbo cabinet of ministers, providing perks to them at the expense of public finance .
4) Tax evasion by stashing money in undeclared Tax Havens.
5) Commissions and benefits from infrastructure projects.
6) Sexual favours.
I completely agree with Dr. J.R. that revising the laws with foreign assistance alone will not eradicate corruption, though all principal legislation and subsidiary legislation should be revised where necessary and consolidated . The problem is not that the law is inadequate but that its implementation is not effective, due to corrupt practices , indifference, or wilful negligence. For example, it is an open secret that, to get millions of rupees as refunds from some departments, millions have to be given to officers. To release cargo without adequate processing thousands have to be forked out . With reference to The Island headlines of 27/5/16 regarding a customs big wig being involved in a vehicle racket, there is a bribe known as ‘adiyata 1000’. That means that to release a container without examination or to collude with the smuggler, Rs. 1,000 has to be paid to the officers concerned for every foot in length of the container i.. Rs. 40,000 for a forty-foot container .The Customs Revenue Task Force should be congratulated on this detection. There are many more such practices that cannot be detailed.
The question is why cannot this corruption be stopped? First there is no political will because the law makers are the law breakers.eg the import of luxury cars with duty and tax waivers. Secondly, is what I term ‘the Tyranny of the Bureaucracy’. This largely applies to speed money to expedite a matter or avoid delay or obtain a service. If one does not give a bribe then the file gets lost and you have to forego whatever you want. Or else you have to pay a go between, like a clearing agent, who knows how to bribe his way through, or someone like a lawyer’s clerk who knows the name of the game. Thirdly there is no system of appeal. This is partly because the head of the institution concerned is not aware or he cannot break through the ring of corruption.
The Provincial Council and District Council system has further complicated matters. Devolution of functions has added another level of inefficiency and corruption with no appeal procedures in place. The Government Agent system, without the preferential system of voting, with the Divisional Revenue officers (D.R.Os.) and with the District Co-ordinating Committees and the District Agricultural committees, constituted a more personal bond between the Govt , the politicians and the public. It also resulted in a top to bottom effective policy implementation system and a bottom to top appeal system. In my view the Divisional and District Council system is a corrupt and efficient bottleneck.
To the above should be added the total collapse of the Administrative system, the large intake of officers to an over bulging public service, resulting in the salaries of officers being inadequate, etc etc.
The lack of any attempt to facilitate is another issue. Computerization does not mean facilitation. Some laws may have to be simplified and revised. Data requirements and documents required should be reduced to an absolute minimum. . Acknowledgement of letters or documents received in hard copy or electronically should be a compulsory requirement. Procedures should be reduced to a minimum. In short the entire system with which administrations function has to be streamlined and officers be held responsible for delays. All requirements for dealing with Govt. Institutions should be in the public domain. When the late Hon. Lalith Atulathmudali chaired the Exporters Forum and the question of bribes was brought up he always said ‘remove the hurdles". Now people bribe because otherwise nothing could be got done. I know of an instance where clearing goods from customs where the importer challenged the customs resulting in a substantial delay, and the institution concerned losing millions in lost production. This loss could have been avoided if illegal handouts were made.
The question is how do you interdict corruption? When I served on the now defunct Quota Board the late President R. Premadasa constituted a committee headed by a retired D.I.G to inspect garment factories to ensure that such factories actually existed, and there was no fraud in textile quota usage. This flying squad was only limited to this area of activity. Some frauds were detected. When I attempted to streamline the quota allocation system I had death threats. Perhaps this type of surprise audit in respect of revenue departments could be instituted, employing staff from the Auditor Generals Department, the Ministry of Finance, or in constituting an internal audit unit of hand-picked officers who have the technical knowledge and are known for their reliability.eg The Customs Revenue Task force.
As regards the Inland Revenue Department ( IR.D), in my view it should send a tax return to every person who imports a car or buys a car from an importer of vehicles , or builds a palatial house ( this to be defined ), and audit the accounts of large businesses Follow up action should be taken . The incidence of collusion in these areas has been reported. Of course the I.R.D. officers should completely change their attitude and treat tax payers as honourable citizens, instead of treating them like thieves Not all officers take this attitude, but I have experienced mistreatment when I was in the private sector. The tax rates also should be reasonable.
The other hopeless situation is that with a jumbo cabinet and an irrational distribution of subjects no one knows who is in charge of what, and how to sort out this jig saw puzzle, in order to make an appeal to rectify an injustice or to get something done.
Today we are launching a new campaign urging the government of Sri Lanka to keep the promise it made to war survivors – and Sri Lanka at large – to address the legacy of the war and to embark on a meaningful process of reconciliation.
