Sri Lanka’s prevailing corrupt political system did not provide an effective environment to privatize or listing of State owned enterprises (SOE’s) , Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Ceylon FT.
This was revealed, by the JVP leader at the briefing arranged for the business community at the Grand Oriental Hotel Colombo, on the 27th July.
The JVP leader said that, “Our state sector is full of corruption, inefficiencies and nepotism.” In this scenario, allowing at least a partial listing is a major risk,”
“Successive governments have failed in their privatization attempts. Insurance, liquor, gas and oil were some examples. Some collapsed because of corruption, inefficiencies and due to negligence and nepotism”.
“We need a strong state protection to safe guard those state entities and assets at least, until the good governance is properly established stated Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
“The upcoming parliamentary election is crucial to us”.
“We are not in a position to support any major party (UNP or UPFA). Our expectation is around 15 parliamentary seats. While remaining in opposition we would like to pressurize whatever the coalition government, to do correct things,” JVP leader said.
” In the past Mahinda Rajapaksa regime was governed by the Rajapaksafamily and a few state officers, such as Nivard Cabral, Dr. P.B Jayasundara, Lalith Weerathunga and Gamini Senarath.
Present, Ranil Wickremesinghe regime is also not so different. It is also governed by his close political associates and officers such as Malik Samarawickrama, Charitha Ratwatte and Arjuna Mahendran.”
“Today fraud has become an informal mechanism running parallel to the processes of governance. Attitudes have deteriorated and corruption is inevitable.”
The JVP leader believed that there was corruption involved in the recent Central Bank bond Scandal.
“Undoubtedly CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran is (allegedly) corrupt. Recently President Maithripala Sirisena’s television address to the nation was proof” for this he stated.
JVP leader also said that they are not in favour of the port city project.
“The government represents the lion’s share of our economy. They controlled our banking, insurance, port, aviation, transport, gas sectors. They owned the largest land bank. With this limited private sector scope, the market growth may get stagnated. So, it is better to list at least 10%-20% of the government’s profit making entities,” Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) Chairman Vajira Kulatilaka told Ceylon FT recently.