Driving in Colombo is a nightmare – trying to avoid the hurtling buses, three wheelers that dangerously cut you off, and just the bad and aggressive driving. Add to that these crazy convoys. It was a crazy traffic before new year, and everyone was annoyed as we were forced to inch along. In between the horning and engine roaring there was a loud mechanical wait and before we knew it we were shoved onto a side as two back up jeeps and a tinted SUV drove by.
Highly irritated by this performance I asked the policeman who was standing by the road who that was.
He replied, “Must be a minister.” I asked which one.
“I don’t know there are a hundred no?” he responded.
That’s when it hit me. We all know that there are more than a hundred ministers but why do we continue to put up with this nonsense?
I decided to at least check to see if the 100 plus ministers was in fact real or a myth perpetuated by the pro-UNP media. Frankly I don’t think even the most anti-government scribe could create such a ridiculous creation. We have 51 cabinet ministers, 39 non-cabinet ministers and 19 deputy ministers – that’s a total of 109!!!
Under CBK the cabinet ballooned to over 60 but under MR we earned the dubious honour of being the only country in the world with a three figure list of ministers. With two months to go before presidential elections our President increased it by two more: the cross over UNP MPs Johnston Fernando and Indika Bandaranayake being the latest addition to a gargantuan white elephant. Offering cabinet position has become an official form of bribery.
I am not even a public administrator but the division of labour looks like a nightmare for anyone wanting to work on assisting or improving the delivery of services.
n We have 5 ministers for nation building: are they all working in Sri Lanka or have we sent them to Fiji to help the military regime there?
n We have 3 ministers for national integration: have we had to split the country (again!) between them in order for them to work?
n We have a Minister for Coconut Development in addition to separate Ministers for Plantation Industries, for Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services Development, and for Agrarian Services: has coconut been internationally declassified as a plantation or agricultural product? And an additional Ministry of Supplementary Crops Development? C’mon!
n We have One Minister for Textile Industries and another for Textile Development: because the issue is too complicated for one minister to understand?!
For a moment, let’s forget the numbers and look at the services provided to citizens. Can the Government objectively prove to us that having so many ministries has improved services? Instead of more ministers resulting in increased efficiency and responsiveness to public needs and demands, the converse seems to have taken place. Instead it has led to duplication and in-fighting. How on earth do countries like India and the US manage with just a handful of ministers and with an exponentially larger population?
A coterie of individuals around the President, including his brothers seem to have all the powers, including control of finance, so little can go ahead without the nod from the palace. Ministers in fact cannot give their word that projects will go ahead because they have to check with the higher ups. I have even heard anecdotes of an individual minister visiting his ministry once a month because they don’t have any “real work.”
There is something wrong in our politics when members of parliament expect to get a ministry if they join government – do they want to serve the people or themselves?
Can we really afford them? 107 ministers mean at least one hundred personal secretaries, hundreds of major and minor staff, bodyguards (or what’s the point of becoming a minister), duty free vehicles plus gallons of petrol, official residences, telephone bills, the list goes on. It’s clear the Government needs to cut costs so before we start reducing pensions of public servants or cutting out people from Samurdhi why don’t we cut the number of ministers? If I was the IMF that’s the first thing I would have asked since cutting public sector expenditure is high on the list of demands. As a citizen I am outraged by the Government’s irresponsible spending. So where does this leave us stupid, bleating citizens? It’s election time – the one time when we citizens do really count for these politicians.
So instead of just obediently and unquestioningly lining up to cast our votes why don’t we insist that presidential candidates and political parties commit to a cabinet of only 20? C’mon it’s time we did something responsible and that would benefit all of us.
- DailyMirror | http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=72595
Highly irritated by this performance I asked the policeman who was standing by the road who that was.
He replied, “Must be a minister.” I asked which one.
“I don’t know there are a hundred no?” he responded.
That’s when it hit me. We all know that there are more than a hundred ministers but why do we continue to put up with this nonsense?
I decided to at least check to see if the 100 plus ministers was in fact real or a myth perpetuated by the pro-UNP media. Frankly I don’t think even the most anti-government scribe could create such a ridiculous creation. We have 51 cabinet ministers, 39 non-cabinet ministers and 19 deputy ministers – that’s a total of 109!!!
Under CBK the cabinet ballooned to over 60 but under MR we earned the dubious honour of being the only country in the world with a three figure list of ministers. With two months to go before presidential elections our President increased it by two more: the cross over UNP MPs Johnston Fernando and Indika Bandaranayake being the latest addition to a gargantuan white elephant. Offering cabinet position has become an official form of bribery.
I am not even a public administrator but the division of labour looks like a nightmare for anyone wanting to work on assisting or improving the delivery of services.
n We have 5 ministers for nation building: are they all working in Sri Lanka or have we sent them to Fiji to help the military regime there?
n We have 3 ministers for national integration: have we had to split the country (again!) between them in order for them to work?
n We have a Minister for Coconut Development in addition to separate Ministers for Plantation Industries, for Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services Development, and for Agrarian Services: has coconut been internationally declassified as a plantation or agricultural product? And an additional Ministry of Supplementary Crops Development? C’mon!
n We have One Minister for Textile Industries and another for Textile Development: because the issue is too complicated for one minister to understand?!
For a moment, let’s forget the numbers and look at the services provided to citizens. Can the Government objectively prove to us that having so many ministries has improved services? Instead of more ministers resulting in increased efficiency and responsiveness to public needs and demands, the converse seems to have taken place. Instead it has led to duplication and in-fighting. How on earth do countries like India and the US manage with just a handful of ministers and with an exponentially larger population?
A coterie of individuals around the President, including his brothers seem to have all the powers, including control of finance, so little can go ahead without the nod from the palace. Ministers in fact cannot give their word that projects will go ahead because they have to check with the higher ups. I have even heard anecdotes of an individual minister visiting his ministry once a month because they don’t have any “real work.”
There is something wrong in our politics when members of parliament expect to get a ministry if they join government – do they want to serve the people or themselves?
Can we really afford them? 107 ministers mean at least one hundred personal secretaries, hundreds of major and minor staff, bodyguards (or what’s the point of becoming a minister), duty free vehicles plus gallons of petrol, official residences, telephone bills, the list goes on. It’s clear the Government needs to cut costs so before we start reducing pensions of public servants or cutting out people from Samurdhi why don’t we cut the number of ministers? If I was the IMF that’s the first thing I would have asked since cutting public sector expenditure is high on the list of demands. As a citizen I am outraged by the Government’s irresponsible spending. So where does this leave us stupid, bleating citizens? It’s election time – the one time when we citizens do really count for these politicians.
So instead of just obediently and unquestioningly lining up to cast our votes why don’t we insist that presidential candidates and political parties commit to a cabinet of only 20? C’mon it’s time we did something responsible and that would benefit all of us.
- DailyMirror | http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=72595
