Financial Management Bill: Clarification needed

At a recent discussion hosted by a well-known public TV channel on the subject of the agreement with the IMF regarding the restructuring of foreign debts of Sri Lanka an office-bearer of the Government Audit officers’ association revealed a very important issue discussed in the government’s financial management bill. He stated that when a government official caused a financial loss due to negligence or willfully as an act of corruption such incidents would be referred to the Auditor General for investigation.

But under the proposed changes earmarked in the government’s financial management bill, the responsibility of rectification of such a serious action would be transferred from the Auditor General to the Secretary of the Treasury department with powers to reduce the punishment applicable to the offender or to completely do away with the punishment.

I am certain that the statement made at a public forum by such a responsible person must be true. If so, what is the intention of the government in formulating a financial management bill to encourage corruption and continue the public waste which is endemic to the state sector?

Can the government explain why they plan to reward corruption even at this stage of laborious restructuring the debt burden in pardoning the financial frauds when the country was bankrupt mainly due to faulty and corrupt policies of respective governments and government senior officials?

Ranjith Soysa