Bribery and corruption are rampant at every level of the bureaucracy

Bribery and corruption are rampant at every level of the bureaucracy

Dear Mr.Ranasinghe

It was reported that the bribe amount was Rs.200 million and the duo was caught accepting the first instalment of Rs.20 million.

Only Mahanama and Dissanayake have been unlucky to be caught.  redhanded. Many others have got away scot-free,

Bribery and corruption are rampant at every level of the bureaucracy.

We wanted to start a dairy farm project in Trincomalee and it took well over 2 years to get the land on lease for 33 years.

More than 9 departments were involved like environmental, forest and wildlife department and so on have to give no objection certificate for the Ministry of Land to sign the lease. We have to bribe the staff of most of these departments to push the file to the Presidential Secretariat for the President’signature.

Luckily we managed to sign the agreement a few days before the President exited the office.

On a personal note, I am battling with the Foreign Pension Unit of the Government Pension Department to pay a sum of Rs.661,000 for the period 2004 – 2010.

The Pension Department staff is taking refuge under subterfuges to delay /deny payment of arrears.

It took them 14 months to revise my pension! It should not have taken more than a day to calculate the arrears.

If you have a computer and Excel software, the calculation could be done within a few minutes. All that is needed is 3 columns viz Amount Payable,  Amount paid and Balance due for 72 months (2004-2010).

Now from 2011, I have been asking for the payment of arrears unsuccessfully.

First, they asked for an Affidavit attested by a Notary Public and Solicitor that I have not received the pension arrears and if it is proved that I have in fact been paid that I will refund the amount!

So I went to the lawyer and got an Affidavit duly attested and signed. The original was sent by post and a scanned copy by email. This was in May this year.

I spoke to the Deputy Director in charge of pensions on 22nd August this year and he told me his office is busy and that he will pay my arrears in September/October.

Then I got an email asking me to submit my  Bank statements from 2004 -2010 – the period my pension was revised. This is ridiculous since the department could not have paid the arrears during the period the pension arrears was revised!

All attempts to speak to the Deputy Director (Pension) was of no avail.

I am losing hope that they will pay the arrears in this century.

They must be waiting till I kick the bucket to close the file!

I was myself a Grade 1 Class 1 Accountant when retired after thirty years of service to take an appointment with the Bauchi State government, Nigeria.

I never got a cent as a bribe during my entire career and I gave instructions to my subordinates that any complaints from ratepayers should be addressed within 3 days. If that is not possible they must leave the files on my table! No one did so!

I am pretty sure the Pension staff is expecting ‘something’ in return to pay the arrears.

No President/Prime Minster can lift the country out of the present mess without cleaning the bureaucracy of bribery and corruption.

But you cannot expect the politicians to do it since they themselves are corrupt!

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa owes the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation a sum of Rs.47.4 million being balance amount owing for constructing the DA Rajapaksa Memorial and Museum at Medamulana at a total cost of Rs.81.3 million.  (https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/da-rajapaksa-foundation-owes-slrdc-rs-47-million-for-rajapaksa-memorial/)

On elected President, he has been released from the court case. So how do you expect Gotabaya to fight bribery and corruption?

The examples could be multiplied thousand fold!

I feel very sorry for the people of Sri Lanka. Thanks for your patience!

Thangavelu

Canada

About editor 3118 Articles
Writer and Journalist living in Canada since 1987. Tamil activist.

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