Public funds splashed for Mahinda’s jumbo delegations

Nov 28, 2016

The annual tour for the UN General Assembly has become quite a considerable expenditure to the state of Sri Lanka in the recent years. According to reports, recent government have spent more than 1 0 Million Rupees per person in this delegation to the UN General Assembly. Compared to these massive expenses , it hard to say that we have achieved anything fruitful in return.

Since 2005 up until 2016 603 people have represented Sri Lanka in The UN General Assembly. And half of them, numbering 314, have been persons outside the official cohort. Accordingly it is clear that public funds have been openly misused by all the governments by spending as much money for diplomats, on outside non-relevant personnel.

Usually the annual delegation to the UN General Assembly is headed by the President. The official delegation is normally consisted of the minister for External Affairs, the first lady, MPs or Ministers and the officials of the foreign ministry. Apart from that in the recent past, many others have been included to this delegation as "other agents". This was clearly seen during the Rajapaksa regime. But the state bears all the expenses for these other agents as well. They include travel expenses, accommodation and all other expenses.

Between 2005 and 2015, 2011 has been recorded as the year where the highest amount of public funds has been spent on the UN delegation. It amounts to a staggering 169,124,899.30. It is roughly 160 Million Rupees. The delegation has included 98people and 68 of them were non-related personnel. Accordingly each person has been taken in by spending 1.7 million Rupees. After that in 2010 Rs. 129,891,525 for 105 members, in 2013Rs. 125,215,891 for 82 members has been spent. In 2010 65 government officials have taken part in the tour. And in 2013 42of them were non-official personnel.

Further in 2010, the delegation had included the then first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa's youngest son Rohitha. Here many criticisms were made regarding the presence of the President's son as he had no business being a delegate in the UN.

In 2006, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa took first lady, Ministers, Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Sripathi Suriyarachchi, Rishad Bathiuddin, MahindaSamarasinghe, Gunarathna Weerakoon, Athawuda Senewiratne, Nimal Siripala De Silva, Dullus Alahapperuma, NirmalaKothalawala, Douglus Devananda, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, SusilPremjayanth, Arumugam Thondaman, Wishwa Warnapala, Geethanjana Gunawardhana and several other Ministers and MPs to the UN General Assembly with an expense of 494,464,601.

IN 2007 the then President Rajapaksa repeated his tradition by taking a bunch of his allies in the UN ride inclding RohithaBogollagama, DOuglas Devananda, Anura Yapa, T.B. Ekanayake, CHampika Ranawaka and C.B. Rathnayake. This time too the total expenses had grossed over 60 Million Rupees. His grand expenditure on the UN delegation soon went through the roof as titanic sums like 120 Million and 160 Million Rupees were spent on the delegations during 2010 and 2011. IN 2012and 2013

two groups visited New York under the leadership of then President Rajapaksa and they too spent equal amounts of money on the tour.

The lowest sum President Rajapaksa has spent on these UN tours is 30,143,017 in 2012. The delegation had only consisted of 18 people. Here the speciality is that it was former Minister G.L. Peiris that had led the delegation in that year.

During these years it is clearly visible that over half of the delegation has been comprised with outsiders. The last UN General Assembly was special to Sri Lanka as the alleged war crimes issue was taken into discussion at that event. But unfortunately the delegation was not able to make a considerable difference at the assembly. It has now been realized that many of the delegates are considering this a free shopping tour rather than an international event. This was recently raised by JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa as well. Responding to that query, foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera produced a report, but the names of those who had taken part in these tours have not been revealed. Accordingly it has been mentioned that during 2005 - 2015 115 state officials and 126 other agents have taken part in these delegations. The finally headcount in all these events amounts to 647.

In 2005 the then President Chandrika Kumarathunga led the Sri Lankan delegation along with Lakshman Kadirgamar, Dew Gunasekera, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, and 7 other MPs. It has cost the state 20 Million Rupees.

However, during the election the Yahapalana administration continuously claimed that they would take steps to prevent misusing public funds for these unnecessary expenses. Accordingly in 2015 President Maithripala Sirisena was given the public mandate to bring a new change to this system Accordingly the first Sri LAnkan delegation to UN headed by President Maithripala Sirisena contained 44 personnel with the expense of 90 Million Rupees. This contained 15 other agents as well.

It has now been clear that though the faces have changed the policies have remained unchanged. Even though the Yahapalanagovernment accused Mahainda Rajapaksa for taking large crowds at state's expense to UN assembly, little has changed in the way the new government is acting at present. One may argue that the delegation needs other agents to cover a large area of scope. But it is problematic as to what relatives; friends of the top brass are going to do to expand this scope. It is a known secret that these delegations enjoy the best treatments abroad. Hence it is clear that these investments have not given us back any considerable profit.

However, we still remain optimistic about the future as the government has now realized the need to cut down unnecessary costs to balance its budget. However it may be misusing public funds is an unforgivable crime. Hence we are watching as to how the Yahapalanaya is going to deal with this issue.

AshWaru Colombo