Sri Lanka: Question of transparency and justifiability in Foreign Service appointments

There is no rules and regulations in the Ministry to manage postings and purposely the higher authority of the Ministry has avoided introducing a circular with rules to regularize the procedures for appointing officers to the Missions abroad. This has created a very unpleasant situation in the Ministry.

by Our Diplomatic Editor- Jun 5, 2018

Jun 6, 2018

( June 5, 2018, Colombo, SriLanka Guardian) The general public is kept in dark in the case of activities and conducts of the Sri Lankan Missions abroad and its headquarters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among many mischievous decisions taken by the higher authority in the Foreign Ministry, appointing of Foreign Service officers to the Missions abroad has always raised eyebrows of many. It is a fact that ultimate aim of any Foreign Service official is to become an Ambassador. To reach this point, they endeavour a lot during their career.

However, some have been using short-cuts such as their “sexy figures,” political affiliations, relationship to politicians, their school friendship with big shots and many other strategies to secure good postings and cross-postings. Those who have no such affluence, accept what is offered and what is available. Except in very rare cases, abilities and capabilities of the officers have never been considered for their appointments to the Missions. From the very beginning, seniors in the Foreign Ministry and some politicians groom their favourites for the prestigious posts in the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and countries in the EU such as Switzerland, France, Brussels, Netherlands. They are often and repeatedly appointed to these places while others are working in the Middle East and some Asian countries throughout their career. This phenomenon did not receive any change even after the establishment of new government in 2015. At present, there are no clear criteria for the selection of officers for postings and period of postings. For example, some officers continuously serve abroad over 10 years while another person is asked to return to Sri Lanka just after three years. Usually, three years is a period of stay abroad during one posting.

There is no rules and regulations in the Ministry to manage postings and purposely the higher authority of the Ministry has avoided introducing a circular with rules to regularize the procedures for appointing officers to the Missions abroad. This has created a very unpleasant situation in the Ministry. In 2015, the Ministry created a record appointing an entire batch to the posts of Ambassadors disregarding the seniors working at the Ministry during this period. The issue was that at that time most of the appointees were already serving abroad and have completed their full three-year term. Thereafter, interview system has been introduced to select officers to the posts in the Missions. This system has also helped selection of favourites. More importantly, country requirements, abilities of the officers and type of relations Sri Lanka has with some countries, type of Sri Lanka community living in some countries have not been considered during the selection process. For example, in Canada, the Consul General in Toronto is a Muslim officer, and the Ambassador and Deputy in the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa are Muslim officers. However, the majority of Sri Lanka community in Canada are Tamils and Sinhalese. Once again they have appointed a Muslim officer as High Commissioner. Since there are sensitive issues among the Sri Lanka community, these appointments have created unhappiness among the Sri Lankans. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not keen on appointing Muslim officers to the Middle East. The reason is they are difficult postings.

At the same time, a very junior officer has been nominated to the UK as High Commissioner. This officer is currently serving as Ambassador in Korea. It appears that the ministry lacks senior officers capable of working in the UK. An insider story says that she has been giving a cross-posting at the request of Mrs. Maithree Wickramasinghe, the wife of the Prime Minister. The officer is said be a school mate of Mrs. Wickramasinghe, which is not a palpable story to cover up the motive behind this appointment. Official of the Ministry has made a request to Mrs. Maithree Wickramasinghe to verify this claim. However, it is ugly in two ways. One is that it is not nice to cook-up stories of this nature to save the ass of someone. Second, it tells a story that bias is the main currency in the Foreign Ministry. This is the ugliest incident experienced by the Foreign Ministry officials in the recent past. Similarly, another very junior lady officer was nominated to Germany as Ambassador while a very senior officer was serving as Consul General in Frankfurt. This appointment was made as the lady officer is a pet of someone. At this point, H.E. the President refused to confirm her appointment.

In the meantime, some officers who have FCID cases have not been transferred to Colombo to save them being arrested. In this manner, the present secretary is colluding with the culprits as they are members of his camp. Unfortunately, the President and the Prime Minister are not in agreement to reshape the Foreign Ministry and make it a better institute that could serve Sri Lanka. Also, they have shown no interest in solving the issues affecting the entire system of Foreign Affairs.