Make officials accountable for their costly actions
The 300 MW Norochcholai Power Plant has broken down again. Since the commissioning of this plant, this has been subject to frequent breakdown, fires, trippings etc. It is also alleged that the plant can receive coal supplies for less than 200 days of the year, due to the wrong design of the unloading Jetty. What is more surprising is that the while there was debate on the location of the unloading Jetty during the design stage – whether it was to be located out in the deep sea or in the shallow waters, the final product was the shallow water Jetty built to the cost of the Deep water Jetty !!!!
Engineers also allege that the suppliers provided a single unit plant for 300 MW, at the cost allocated for a multiple unit plant with much higher availability, efficiency and serviceability. However, the cost of the single unit plant, which should have been much lower than the multiple unit plant, was more expensive than the initial estimates for the multiple unit plant.
These glaring errors and omissions by the officials in charge, and the responsible persons in the relevant ministries – go unchecked and unpunished. People’s money is wasted and lost due to the inefficiency and corruption of certain officials. These are never highlighted anywhere. The opposition is too busy fighting their own leadership battles. The government protects corrupt and inefficient officials due to their allegiances with the political hierarchy. People’s money is wasted and nobody is held responsible.
There are conflicting reports on the Hambantota port having problems with a large rock at the bottom, limiting its depth. It is strange that while these projects are carried out after exhaustive feasibility studies are done by world experts, these kind of fundamental errors still occur. Typically, heads at the highest levels would have rolled in any other country over a technical omission like this. Consultants would have been held responsible, and their contracts should have provided adequate fallback for the government to claim for wrong designs. Why is this government not holding the officials responsible for this kind of glaring errors that cost taxpayers’ money?
On the contrary, the government seems to embrace certain officials who have caused these losses. The highest official at the Ministry of Power and Energy, is still retained in his position way beyond the usual retirement age, and was also given an additional posting as the head of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. This is while, in addition and due to these glaring procurement errors, the cost of a unit of electricity has crept up to nearly 20 Sri Lankan Rupees, according to the data published by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka.
Whilst the people are indebted to the President and the government for ridding the country of terrorism and paving the way for development, the euphoria is gradually dying down, and the government should get out of its slumber and take necessary steps to increase the efficiency of the relevant departments and government entities and cut down losses in the public sector. Accountability should be seriously adhered to, and the top officials should be treated on their merits and punished for all errors and omissions occurring under them. The people are waiting to see the results of the inquiries held to bring the culprits of the low quality fuel imports to book, but many are skeptical that any form of punishment would be meted out. The worst form of punishment would be a transfer, which is clearly inadequate punishment for any criminal who has robbed billions off the country and people.
The people expect the President and his government to protect the country’s wealth and limited resources, and the president should make all his officials answerable to their actions. The opposition should highlight these issues in parliament, and query the relevant ministers in charge in a proper manner. The members of parliament are provided with enough muscle in the form of the COPE to highlight these issues, but typically they are ignorant or uncaring about the monumental wastage of public funds due to the inefficiency and corruption of these officials.
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