Stamping out organised corruption in some leading government establishments may help reduce the budget deficit, President Maithripala Sirisena said. The President was addressing the National Summit on Anti-corruption 2016 yesterday.
“Unfortunately, there is an organised corruption network operating within government establishments. There is not much talk about organised corruption,” the President said. “I shall not in public name a certain institute or a department for being corrupt. If I do, they might start protesting against me for making such a statement,” President Maithripala Sirisena said.
“When we try to introduce corruption prevention measures such as CCTV cameras in some of these departments, the bribe takers protest or resort to strikes. We have to ask ourselves how socially degenerated we are to support a corruption network. I was reported that one time, an administrative officer, who received a transfer to a new department, was prevented from performing his duties as he did not support the internal corruption network adopted by the department workers. He was isolated for more than one and a half years at his work place, as he did not support their organized corruption,” the President said.
“We, as a country, also have a disreputable history when it comes to political heads using and manipulating public commissions and government establishments for political purposes,” President Sirisena pointed out.
“If we take our national income into consideration, I believe that we can increase it if we can prevent serious fraud and corruption taking place in some of the leading government establishments in the country. Preventing corruption in these institutes will bring a larger income to the government with which we can reduce our budget deficit.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the heads of these establishments to rid their respective institutions of corruption. I propose the government institutes to hold anti-corruption meetings thrice a month at their respective institutes. Such a meeting will become an anti-corruption sangayanava against the corruption networks,” President Sirisena added.
Referring to a speech made at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute recently, the President said that he faced strong criticism from certain groups for making such a speech. However, I still abide by my statement, the President added.
“What matters is that all law enforcement agencies should operate unbaised. No investigation can be zeroed upon only by a certain group or persons. We expect the independent commissions to be impartial as I pointed out in that speech.” President Sirisena said.
President Maithripala Sirisena further said that the objective of a National Summit on Anti-Corruption is to educate politicians, government officials and the public on the importance of anti-corruption as a concept.
“Giving a bribe is as wrong as receiving one,” he said. Therefore, the public should also keep in mind not to encourage bribe takers,” the President further added.
President Sirisena also said that some government heads are reluctant to carry out some of their duties for fear of having to appear before law enforcing agencies such as the FCID.
“Not only government officials, I am reported that even some ministers have refused to work on some files saying that they don’t want to appear before the FCID. In a way, this fear is a vaild point.
The fear to do wrong shows the awareness campaign carried out by the government against corruption is showing results. However,political leaders and government heads should fulfill their responsibilities to society with less or no corruption.”