Those big spenders on our tax money

Minister Bogollagama continues to live it up on public money, even as a mammoth Sri Lankan delegation prepares to leave for New York for the UN General Assembly sessions which have been transformed into a joy ride for dozens of friends and family of this administration…

By Dharisha Bastians
On Saturday, (22) Sri Lanka will break her own record as the country with the largest delegation to the UN in the developing world, at this year’s session. Last year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 55 plus delegation put Sri Lanka in focus as the single largest delegation at the sessions. This year, it would seem the administration is intent on bettering its own record.

Separate presidential and foreign ministry delegations will comprise a total of almost 85 members, running up staggering bills in New York City during their sojourn. If it wasn’t bad enough that the delegation was extraordinarily, unnecessarily large, the greater travesty is that it comprises largely political henchmen and family members rather than the experts the government delegation could use as they attend this annual event so crucial to every country’s foreign policy.

Diplomacy is in no way a low cost business. Even as a poor third world country, Sri Lanka needs to maintain certain standards when it is being represented abroad. However, forgetting the per capita income of the country that one is supposed to represent is not diplomacy.

This is an age when the country’s economy is bleeding and the masses have been asked to bear the cost of the mammoth cabinet, set in place not due to any practical necessity but simply as an enticement for political crossovers. It is also a time when the Sri Lankan state is contemplating obtaining a loan of a colossal USD 500 million from a private bank supposedly to fund its war on terror, but as everyone knows also to ensure the survival of this administration. The jumbo delegation is raising many eyebrows based on all these reasons and the fact that despite all the adverse reports against them, ministers appear to be carrying on regardless, living in the lap of luxury on the poor man’s taxes.
According to the Foreign Ministry’s official count, the delegation to the UN is a mere 36 members. However, the real figures are a well kept secret, because of the negative publicity the trip has been getting already.

The first lady is reported to have already left for the land of the free with her own entourage of 10 or more personnel. The President of course may argue that this delegation is far smaller than the massive delegation who he tagged along to China last year. By the final count, that delegation had 260 or more members – one of the largest delegations accompanying a country’s head of state - ever.

The globetrotting foreign minister has since taking up office in January this year, undertaken over 30 trips overseas and already finished his annual budgetary allocation of Rs. 160 million in six months. Having exhausted the Ministry funds allocated for other matters on his extravagant trips abroad, the Minister is in the process of obtaining another colossal amount through a supplementary estimate scheduled to be presented to the cabinet this week.

The question to be asked, given that it is the money of the tax payer that is being thus splurged, is if anything tangible has come out of all these trips abroad. It is believed that the delegation to China amounted to very little other than eight insignificant treaties which could have been signed by junior officers at our foreign mission being inked.

The Rs. 160 million spent by Minister Bogollagama too will come to nought since after all the bloated claims not a single job has been secured for Sri Lankans in Libya, he has managed to bring in no investment and can boast of little in terms of damage control with regard to the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

The globetrotter has made a statement recently that only the most vital individuals will be travelling to the United Nations this year. Yet he has failed to mention what the vital role of his wife is going to be for the tax payers to be billing their expenses. This kind of duality and deceit is fast becoming a trademark of this administration.

The greater travesty – that despite all the negative press Minister Bogollagama has been getting over the last few months, he is yet to be questioned, let alone penalised for the gross abuse of his position over the last nine months. The newspapers, charged with being watchdogs of governments in power, have written countless articles about the Foreign Minister’s extravagances and his callous disregard for government procedure. And yet, like the notorious Mervyn Silva, who appears to be capable of getting away with murder without so much as a rap on the knuckles, Bogollagama goes on his merry way.

No doubt the Ministry and the Presidential Secretariat will come up with some brilliant propaganda about the high-level bilateral meetings held on the sidelines of the conference. It is to be hoped that these, like the high level defence panel with India will not end up being an egg in the administration’s face. Sooner or later, this government will have to stand up and account for its sins. A populace is fast losing patience and it is not hard to understand the frustrations of the common man who has to struggle to feed his children while the fat cats are living it up on his money.