The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake – Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Madam Presiding Member, today we debate 21 Heads: His Excellency the President; the Prime Minister’s Office; Superior Courts Judges; Cabinet Office; Public Service Commission; Judicial Service Commission; National Police Commission; Administrative Appeals Tribunal; Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption; Finance Commission; Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka; Parliament; Office of the Leader of the House; Office of the Chief Government Whip; Office of the Leader of the Opposition; Election Commission; Department of National Budget; Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration; Audit Service Commission; National Procurement Commission; and Delimitation Commission.

¶ 02 Unlike Ministries with visible public interfaces, many of these institutions do critical but less-noticed work. I thank Hon. Ganeshan for yielding time, and I appreciate the staff of the Leader of the House’s Office, the Chief Government Whip’s Office, and the parliamentary staff. We have addressed many of their requests; one pending item is leave encashment.

¶ 03 This Budget provides necessary allocations to these less-discussed commissions and bodies. However, some still do not deliver services effectively or proactively. For example, the Bribery Commission – not necessarily due to its officers alone, as political context matters – in the past often ended up prosecuting small fry while the country was looted. The Bribery Commission is funded by the public – including the poorest – and must be accountable to them. We expect it to fulfil its mandate.

¶ 04 Likewise, the Audit Service Commission owes much to the efforts of former Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe and others who campaigned for its independence. As Minister, I can say the Highways Ministry handled some of the largest expenditures that pushed the country to bankruptcy. Cabinet papers reveal massive fraud in projects worth tens of billions; we do not see Rs. 10–500 million projects – they are Rs. 10, 15, 20, 25 billion and more. The Auditor General’s Department carries a serious responsibility to set standards and scrutinize such spending.

¶ 05 We see an entrenched “claiming industry” around the Highways sector: separate firms manufacture inflated claims of Rs. 10–15 billion for work not done, later “negotiated” down to Rs. 3 billion and touted as savings – but that Rs. 3 billion is still fraud. We need the Audit Service Commission to set clear standards, ensure due process, and, beyond financial audits, conduct management audits.

¶ 06 As we proposed at COPE and now via a Cabinet subcommittee, the State has many overlapping institutions, too many department heads and directors created to draw benefits, and others with insufficient staff. The Audit Service Commission should recommend structural reforms to address these management weaknesses. In some departments, offices are full of cubicles and administrators managing themselves rather than serving the public.

¶ 07 We also ask the Commission to focus on projects above even Rs. 1–2 billion to provide strong oversight. We are a Government that does not steal or waste; we want a clean Opposition, a clean audit system, and clean public service to help us implement our mandate. We do not know everything; therefore we rely on strong, independent oversight.