Recently I involved in some consultancy project with a government department. If you served in any private sector company who have dealings with government departments or places like harbour its a known fact that there's a special fund, allocated to give commission, or in local language bribes to officers.
If the commission was not given, it’s better to give up hopes on that particular project or task to be done. In these dealings, you have to gift the ground level workers starting from ministers. Commission goes to different officers depends on their power & ability to get the work done. If it’s a very big project, most of the share goes to minister or his family or electoral. These are most of the times indirect as well as direct.
Very surprisingly in my recent project I met an officer who never gives any hint on bribes. Not only he didn't ask for commission, he was a very talented officer. When he started his duties in the last year, that department had funds only enough to pay the salaries. As a person who closely worked with that organization I saw how they developed. In terms of profits as well as in terms of scale. They started some major projects, some with foreign investors. He expanded their work in to larger category.
Last week I suddenly got to know that he was dismissed from his job. I couldn't hide my curiosity I called one of the directors of that Bureau who is a friend of mine. I asked him,
"That chairman has showed incomparable results during his time & I heard he was fired?"
His reply was,
"Yes he is superb. But what's the use for us? What's our share from that profit? Nothing. What did minister get? Nothing. There are enough people who supported us in the elections & there are more elections to do. When he was requested to give some jobs to minister's carders he refused saying there are enough & more people in that office. So I don't see why we keep him any more"
Even though this was quite a normal news for us, I felt I should write it here as a respect to that gentleman who did his duties. What do you think people? This is the system we have. Is there anything we can do to change this? Most people enter this system becomes a part of it. Otherwise they will be a victim of it like the hero in my case.
What do you think? Can we change it?
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
What’s my share?
Posted by Fly ball at 9:29 PM
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12 comments:
Ha! Change the system! I'd like to see that happen!
for a start why don't you reveal the names. making unsubstantiated allegations wont get us anywhere.
If you would like to share this experience in more explicit detail, we would love to hear from you: lankawhistleblower [at] gmail.com
If you would like to share more explicit details about this project specifically, or anything else... we would love to hear from you. lankawhistleblower [at] gmail.com
Thanks!
Have to agree with sittingnut...names is all its about...something that seems sadly lacking in Sri Lanka...always some minister or person...we know they are idiot...expose them..
Hay,
I know many people who faced similar incidents. You can't do anything about it. Can't do anything
Its there business mate. Let them handle it the way they want. We
could not change the systems here.
you just put your self in danger.
Well guys, thank for your interest. Let me put it this way. I wrote this article because I wanted to draw your attention to this side of our society. People always talk about why our country cannot be developed when there's so many resources & so much of quality man power. I just wanted to point out that this sort of things could be a reason behind our tragedy.
I'm sure this is not the only one & first one you heard of this kind. Everywhere in government sector this happens. I do not want to reveal the people behind this or people who got victims of this. I'm sorry about that. Why are you asking me for the names? Have you done anything for this sort of news you have heard before? Or what good can you do by knowing the names? There are people who are more powerful than me. There are journalists who knows all this & who have better writing capabilities than me. There are people who know most things about this kind. But why don’t you think they don't come up & disclose? Why? This is not a society where whistle blowers can survive. When we work with this officer, it was really easy for my engineers to make the estimates, because we did not have to include the bribes in to project planning. Therefore I have a deep respect for this guy. Though my friends warn me not to burn my hand, I wanted to write about this just as a respect for that officer.
But to be more specific I will tell you most people in the level 1 of the Sri Lanka administration service
knows about this & many other worst scenarios than this. If you are reading news papers every day, couple of weeks back there was a related article in the "Lankadeepa" first page. As I remember it was the head line. It claims a powerful minister have fired all his department heads because they are inefficient. Did any of you guys thought what happened after that? Almost everyone got their jobs except few. There are people who are inefficient for real. But I'm talking with experience & good senses.
A person who knows this incident told me that he used to work with this officer in another place about 10-12 years back. In that time this officer was the head of that Corporation. When he was appointed, it was a loss making company. He was given it with the expectation of reducing the loss. After 3 years when he handed over this corporation it was a profit making company with a huge development. So he confirmed me that I'm correct with regard to his abilities & cleanliness. If you are someone who has enough powers to do a change, I'm sure this information is more than enough to trace the person.
Finally I want to urge. Please don’t ask for more specific or personal details for the people I mention here. Hope you will understand. I'm not brave enough to do that.
To Lanka whistle blower
Thanks for your interest.
If we are trying honestly to do some change to this system, I guess why don’t we support to make a strong public service committee? If there's a good public service committee I don’t think anyone can play around. But most officers of the public service committee also left I guess because they can't change this system. Or at least they can’t do their duty properly under this system.
I think in other developed countries you cannot do this crap because there the public is more superior & they stand against injustice. Just look at what happened to World Bank president. He had to go. Because he helped his girl friend to get a promotion in an unethical way.
There are much more people who have the ability to serve this country, but don’t get a chance to do so. Find them & help them. Probably when many of people express their ideas from media & say blogs like this, it will open up eyes. But I feel as always happens in this country, after a week or 2 everyone will forget everything. :)
Interesting post.
I am surprised though, to read other readers reaction to the article. I thought people just accept it as part & parcel of SL.
Last time I visited SL, I had to get visas for my two children, who hold foreign passports.
I went to the visa office early in the morning naively thinking there won’t be many people & I would be out of there faster.
I have heard of how officers/workers dealing with visas won’t give any change back etc. As I have lived in a western country for a better part of my life I couldn’t see past my “it’s not right” notion, so I made sure I had the exact amount.
I gave the two passports & the money & waited.
And waited I did!
I got there around 9.30am & I was still there at 1pm, wondering half way thru, why it was taking so long.
Still, it didn’t occur to me what was happening until I noticed people who came much later than me leave with their documents. I started watching with intent & saw people approach workers & whisper before handing their documents. Then it dawned on me “you have to bribe”
I was livid & had a good mind to scream “this is not right”
Anyway, I reached boiling point around 1pm & walked to the counter & asked “where my passports & why is it taking so long?” They all looked at one another as they usually do in SL offices. I then gave them a piece of my mind. I mean literally.
At that point one man asked for my name & asked another to get my passports. It didn’t take long after that but still took another 30 minutes or so.
Later when I told the story to friends & family, they said “you should’ve given some santhosam”
To which I replied “why should I? Aren’t they getting paid to do the job?”
I was soon informed of govt workers & their paltry wages & how impossible it is to survive on it
To be honest I felt bad. Next time, I am going to put my principals aside & bribe openly & get the job done.
At least I know they deserve it, unlike greedy & already fat politicians.
------------------------------
On a more personal note......
One of my cousins was the chairman of a certain org.He is straight & honest person & the corrupt ones in the org was really unhappy with him.
During CBK’s time he managed to secure a lucrative foreign contract & as soon as he did that he was demoted with no explanation.
CBK then made one of her relations the chairman & together they milked the project dry.
That is SL & people in power do get away with murder.
When I saw this comment by our reader regarding VISA office & other story I felt like writing this.
Not only in the VISA office, almost everywhere in SL it’s like this. My concern is for the other note regarding how corrupted employees don't like straight forward officers. That is very true. Not even they dislike the honest officers. They take every possible step to de-motivate those officers & make them sic of the country also at last. So many of potential officers have left this country for much better jobs in developed countries , even though they like to serve for this country. I also have a similar experience as our reader. Here, ministers appoint talented officers for the departments which are loss making. & when they develop that & bring profits & new projects, they are kicked out & minister’s people are appointing. Because when there's money, they can steal. But what finally happens is, investors get frustrated & they leave SL without continuing projects. Then again that department falls down to where it was before & this is the story forever.
If you take the public sector of this country, there is too much staff. Because politicians have loaded their supporters who are unemployed in to their respective ministries. So even the governments change, you can't make them redundant after they become permanent staff. The next minister also does the same thing. Then obviously there is too much of people. Normally in public sector there are not much of new projects or new work to do. Therefore from day 1, these people don’t have much of a work to do. Then they learn the things from dirty experts of this dirty system. Automatically they also become part of it. When people stay without doing any work for a long time, after that it’s difficult to work hard. Then they get used to a lazy life. On top of it, if any of the organization gets a profit (very rarely), our red politicians will go there & ask them to do strike for double bonus.
But there are some officers in this country who are very straight forward & who don't care a damn for the power against them. They do their duty perfectly. Thanks to them only, this country runs at least up to this much.
What I believe is, if anyone gets such a high position they should do some service for this country. People may hate him now. Employees may bad mouth about him. Staff may strike against him. Minister may kick them out. But if you do your work, non-biased people will treat you as a hero. When you go somewhere you can say with pride I did this in my time period. How many officers in the public senor today can say this? For most of them there's nothing they do during their period. Nothing. This relates to some of our politicians too. But there are some officers who have a major track record. Even the most corrupted people in the field, talk about them with respect after some time. People become scared for their talent. People become jealous for their abilities. But they are the heroes of this country. We should encourage people to be like that. You may loose many of the opportunities & luxuries in your life. But ultimately you can be very much satisfied at the end of the day.
When my cousin was the chairman, his stance towards corruption placed his safety in jeopardy by the corrupt ones. That was the disturbing part.
The threats were real & insidious, & made his parents worry. They pleaded with their son to either resign or find another job. But he was ethical & adamant that he should not bow down to thuggery.
Unfortunately, when the thuggery came from the top most position in the country he had no recourse but to do as told. He later resigned.
If I am to go by what I have read of other posters, then an uprising of the people is long overdue. I can’t understand why people in SL are not coming out against corruption.
I understand the danger to individual whistleblowers but collectively people can move mountains.
It’s very difficult to do any collective move in a developing country like Sri Lanka. There are many reasons for that. Because civil society is not so powerful yet. There are many reasons for that.
One thing is obviously people are scared. Even if they stand against as collective group, somebody in the group can betray them. This happens very often. I don't know whether you are aware , in some places some of the university students who protest against certain things hold big positions of the same company after that. That's how they grab people. Here everything is politics. Ultimately if you stand against you & your family will have to suffer alone.
Another reason is most people in this country have not brought up with much of open mind. Therefore they cannot understand some of the games behind the certain. They always worship our politicians & believe everything in news papers without questioning any of it. So it’s easy for the politicians to make people as well as kill people.
If the society really wanted to stand against, it has to happen across major institutions in this primary stage. Just look at the human rights NGOs in the country. They are very powerful & its bit hard to go against them. Anyway we'll hope for a better tomorrow. That's all we can do by now.
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