Finance Ministry officials call for Treasury revamp under new regime
Sri Lanka’s Treasury should be revamped soon after the appointment of the cabinet of newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena, Finance Ministry officials warned.
They noted that the new administration should correct the wrong procedures introduced by Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera to put the house in order and tackle financial constraints arising out of the 2015 election budget and heavy spending of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government which ran to over Rs. 12 billion, several times.
Sri Lanka’s 2015 budget was prepared on the directions of the Treasury Secretary in accordance with the incumbent president’s own targets set without considering the Fiscal Management Responsibility Act, they said, adding that it should be reviewed before implementing some of its proposals.
Dr. Jayasundera is accountable for all financial transactions at the ministry as he is the chief accounting officer and he should be made accountable for the poor state of affairs at the Treasury as well as at revenue collection institutions such as Inland Revenue department and Sri Lanka Customs, they alleged. Senior officials of the Finance Ministry including the Treasury have stepped in to extend their fullest cooperation to the country’s new administration to make necessary changes in the Treasury to win the economic war eradicating poverty and narrowing down regional disparities.
A senior Treasury official told the Business Times that the country needs a good financial culture to handle state coffers in a transparent manner. The people have given a mandate for this purpose. he said, noting that the new Treasury Secretary to be appointed by the president soon will have a huge responsibility towards this end.
The government’s 2015 budget with some erroneous estimates, data and records is endangering the country’s economy in relation to 77 expenditure proposals mostly for handouts where the financial allocations are to be made from Treasury votes for the medium term 2015-2017 provisions, economists warned.
The Finance Ministry has pushed the Treasury into difficulty by presenting sunshine budget targeting elections instead of a mini budget to cover spending for the next four months as suggested by several senior officials, he pointed out. “It is unlikely we will have fiscal stability this year,” he claimed.