Sri Lanka Anti-Corruption Program

An article in today’s Daily Mirror titled “Sign of Insensitive and Senseless Society” which Aljuhara has drawn our attention to is an eye opener about a type of human rights abuse that occurs in our society. This article also points to instances of corruption:

The AHRC also says that items given like sewing machines for occupational therapy are used by staff to run their own small businesses from the ward for instance patch work, quilt making. Meanwhile patients remain unoccupied, and their behaviour is not managed, and then they are subjected to inhuman restrictive practices.

Food that is provided by the family on a day out is taken away by staff. Any meat is confiscated and plain buns are given instead as the staff say that the meat will not agree with the patients. But observers have noticed that the meat is not thrown away but taken away by staff in bags.

Then, soap and basics provided to maintain hygiene are taken away by staff and pieces of inexpensive soap like Sunlight is provided instead which reacts badly with the skin of the patients giving rise to added problems. These things are actually happening within these wards and the information is reported by credible NGO staff, mental health professionals and support persons.

While most of us think about corruption as a thing that involves politicians, we also think that it does not affect our lives directly. It doesn’t matter as much if someone gets rich of some multi-million dollar foreign funded project. But the article above brings home the fact that corruption and the abuse of human rights are first cousins–one doesn’t cause the other, but they are able to co-exist in a mutually beneficial manner.

Both are ills that have to be challenged.

The article “Indonesia Campaigns Against Corruption” published in the Seattle Post Intelligencer tells of a new campaign to fight corruption in Indonesia where photos of those convicted of corruption are publised in the news.

What do people think of publishing names and pictures of those convicted of corruption in Sri Lanka? Yes, part of the battle is ensuring that people are convicted, but if they are wouldn’t it be  nice to know who stole  your hard earned tax-payer money? And, I am sure it will also act as a deterrant.

What do people think about this?

As Sri Lankans when we think about the institutions that can investigate and prosecute corrupt officials, there are a couple of thoughts that go through our heads. We question the integrity of the very bodies that have been entrusted with the duty of investigating corruption. We wonder whether these bodies would take any action against a corrupt official or whether they would merely give him/her a ‘rap on the knuckles’. We also wonder why it is the small time bribe takers such as the Grama Niladharis, police constables and minor employees of public institutions that seem to get caught all the time and not the large scale looters of public funds.

In a letter to the Editor published in The Island on October 18, 2006, Lakpriya asks some of these very questions, when he says,

1. Kachcheri clerk in bribery net for soliciting and accepting a bribe of Rs. 1,500. (Island 12th October.)

2. Village headman remanded for accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000. – (Island 12th October)

3. Deputy principal, old boy in bribery net on a charge of accepting a bribe of Rs. 20,000. (13th October)

Are we to believe that only the small fry take bribes and the middle and upper echelons of bureaucracy and the politicians are saints? Or are they being let off the hook or the net is not thrown at them at all? How come billions of rupees are down after the C.B freeze as you report on the very same day you reported about the Kachcheri clerk. Catching a few sprats will not help the country very much. Go for the sharks if we are interested in cleaning up the country. I don’t condone anybody taking bribes. But wonder whether it is worth the effort of bribery officials to go after a petty official taking a bribe of Rs 1,500/ which invariably has to be pursued in the court. If the big takers are apprehended naturally the smaller fry will think twice before soliciting a bribe.

While Lakpriya is accurate in pointing out that netting a few sprats will not help the country, and that the sharks have to be netted to keep the sprats in line, he misses one important point. He does not acknowledge that the “Bribery Officials” of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABC) can ONLY act on “official” complaints received by them.

Even if they read in the newspaper that cars, houses, furniture and trips abroad have been procured using public funds, or that millions of public funds have been siphoned off to personal Swiss Bank accounts they can do nothing about it. They can only act once they have an official complaint. So if it is the small fry that are complained about most often, their nets can only catch the sprats!

It is up to us to complain about the sharks so that the CIABC can cast their nets in that direction.

While we can not deny that there are problems with the way the CIABC has been set up, we have to acknowledge that all of us, as citizens of this country have an obligation to take concrete steps to curb corruption. One main way, is to make complaints to the various bodies mandated to investigate and prosecute corruption, such as the CIABC and the Auditor General’s Department.