DailyMirror – Editorial
It’s easy to blame it on the global economic down turn, however everyone knows it has got much less to do with the latest Central Bank Report data that indicates dismal performances by key ministries. While the Central Bank appears to have made attempts to camouflage the losses with sugar-coated apologies it is obvious that poor policy and weaknesses at the operational stages had made a mess out of certain sectors.
As for transport, the Railway alone lost 4,768 million rupees last year, up 4.7 percent from 2008 and had recorded a marked drop in cargo and passengers.
In the case of the Port sector there’s hope that Sri Lanka would perform miracles with the ambitious Hambantota Port project which is to be completed in 15 years in four phases. Great. However what many fail to see is that, in order to make sure that Sri Lanka has the efficiency and fiscal discipline for Hambantota, the government has to prove itself with the Colombo Port – by displaying that it has the focus and especially the fiscal discipline to handle another one.
The same should be said about the Power sector. Rather than going for heavy duty and somewhat archaic projects by concocting inflated demands, attempts should be made to ensure a greater thrust towards renewable energy. Although there’s a declared goal of producing 10% of the country’s power generation through renewable energy sources by 2015, lack of direction has made it an unattainable goal as things stand now.
Besides, the Central Bank says that Mihin Lanka which is subsidized by the government has lost more than 930 million in the year 2009!
People who voted the UPFA into power for a variety of reasons certainly would not tolerate the government coming up with another set of excuses as for the failure of these ministries and the said airline. At the April 08 polls, war victory still mattered a lot for people and so were the weaknesses of the opposition. Though governance was a great concern people still went ahead in their millions and voted for the government hoping that the second term would see a complete overhaul in the criteria of selecting Cabinet ministers.
It goes without saying that the UPFA has too many big talkers but only a handful of doers. If the chatterers who do not perform are given top jobs, the five hub concept will remain a distant dream that this country will never achieve. Everything will depend on how President Rajapaksa chooses his Cabinet.