Cracks appear in Finance Ministry over presidential election spending
View(s):Cracks are appearing in the Finance Ministry over possible pressure on officials to resort to extravagant pre-polls spending.
Pressure is being exerted by officials on the Treasury Secretary to direct heads of Finance Ministry divisions to adhere to administration and financial regulations in monitoring the spending and handling of state resources by institutions coming under the ministry in the run up to presidential elections. Several officials of the Treasury have brought to the notice of the Secretary P.B. Jayasundera that it is essential to look into the complaints of high spending for sponsorships political advertisements, functions and misuse of state resources such as vehicles during the period of elections and maintain strict controls over unnecessary spending by some institutions coming under the ministry, informed sources revealed. These officials are believed to have urged him to issue a directive to all heads of divisions coming under the purview of his ministry to strictly carry out only his written directives even if there was board approval (by a particular institution) for spending on various activities during the election period.
This matter had transpired at a meeting of top officials of the Finance Ministry recently where Dr. Jayasundera has been urged to make written directives relating to spending of money by institutions affiliated to the ministry on activities connected to presidential elections.
At the meeting, several officials noted that if the heads of institutions including the Treasury Secretary resorted to election spending without any accountable process, they (officials) may be compelled to refuse to carry out such orders or slow down the process in a work-to-rule scenario. These officials had told Dr, Jayasundera at the meeting that institutions coming under the Finance Ministry and the heads of these institutions should be held responsible for any overhead expenditure for sponsorships, advertisements, fuel, transport over time, travelling and other payments of employees, etc since October this year till elections on 8th of January 2015.
The 16 institutions that come under the purview of Finance Ministry are the Securities & Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, Insurance Board of Sri Lanka, National Lotteries Board, Development Lotteries Board, Lady Lochore Loan Fund, National Insurance Trust Fund, Employees Trust Fund Board, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Social Security Board, Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation, Local Loans and Development Fund, Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board, Institute of Policy Studies and the Academy of Financial Studies