Monday 24th June, 2024

It has become patently clear once again that public sector corruption is one of the main reasons why the state revenue has dropped drastically over the decades, and the cost of living has gone through the roof. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) has launched a probe into a revelation by the Auditor General’s Department that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) incurred a staggering loss of Rs. 3.416 billion between 2014 and 2022, as its Marketing Department delayed the issuance of a circular to filling station owners pertaining to commissions paid to them.

The fuel retailers were overpaid at the expense of the public, as a result. This fraud is a crime against the nation and must be treated as such. The COPE has ordered the CPC to submit a report on the fraud within seven working days. One can only hope that the parliamentary investigation will not be hushed up.

No political party represented in the incumbent parliament can absolve itself of responsibility for the colossal loss the CPC has suffered due to the wilful delay of the issuance of the circular at issue. Those who are currently in the SLPP and the SLFP were in the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in 2014; the SJB members were in the UNP, which together with the SLFP subsequently formed the Yahapalana government (2015-2019); the JVP, the SLMC, the TNA, etc., propped up that administration despite the Treasury bond scams and other such rackets it was involved in; the SLPP and its allies including the SLFP have been in power since 2019. It is therefore incumbent upon their holier-than-thou leaders, who have embarked on an anti-corruption campaign, obviously with an eye to the next election, to ensure that the CPC recovers the overpaid amounts and all those involved in the fraud are brought to justice forthwith.

The SLPP, which has become a metaphor for corruption, is notorious for undermining the financial and administrative regulations, especially circulars which are the instruments through which a government addresses administrative, procedural and regulatory matters, ensuring the implementation of its directives. It may be recalled that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, soon after his election, had the audacity to tell public officials that they had to ignore government circulars and do his bidding, instead.

It must be ascertained whether the CPC officials responsible for the massive fraud acted at the behest of the political authority. Behind every corrupt deal in this country there is a politician. Those who functioned as the Ministers of Energy/Petroleum Resources, and CPC Chairpersons during the aforesaid period owe an explanation to the public. The COPE ought to summon and question them. Such a large-scale fraud could not have been carried out unbeknownst to those individuals. In fact, the CID must be called in to carry out a probe without further delay.

The CPC, according to the COPE, has conveniently passed its losses caused by those corrupt officials on to the public in the form of fuel price increases. The government says it has adopted a cost-reflective formula for determining fuel prices. What it has left unsaid is that the fuel prices reflect the CPC’s corruption as well. It is nothing but unfair to make the public pay for the losses that state institutions incur due to corruption. The fuel retailers must be made to return the people’s money they have obtained illegally. They are bound to resist such a move, but noncompliance must be severely dealt with. That is what a government is there for.

Most state officials who have amassed ill-gotten wealth through corrupt deals are living in clover overseas. They must be named and shamed besides being prosecuted; the intervention of the governments of the countries where they are residing must be sought to have them extradited to stand trial here for their corrupt deals and the blatant theft of public funds. It is not difficult to identify the CPC officials who enriched themselves by delaying the issuance of the circular in question and to find where they are living, provided the government has the political will to do so.