Daily News Editorial

Foreign travel of govt. politicians

21 September 2016

President Maithripala Sirisena has ordered to all parliamentarian and government officials to curtail their foreign trips. Issuing a circular in this regard the President has noted that there was a tendency of Ministers, MPs and state officials to undertake foreign trips at enormous cost to the tax payer, with little or no return to the country. This practise was particularly seen under the former regime, where government ministers, their secretaries and public officials took wing abroad at the drop of a hat on costly unproductive missions. It was revealed that as much as Rs. 4,000 million of public funds were spent per year by the last government on these foreign trips where no cost benefit accrued to the country.

The President noted that certain Ministers in the past government under the pretext of ‘study tours’ of projects relevant to their Ministries had gone abroad taking with them their family members. Inherent in the President's observation was that these were merely foreign jaunts undertaken at the expense of the tax payer. There was once a Foreign Minister, who some journalists call wartime Foreign Minister ala a Churchill, who, of all places, took wing to Iceland, which has no known trade, economic or strategic link with Sri Lanka, with spouse and brood in tow. This Foreign Minister who had a penchant for foreign travel abused his position to go globetrotting with no known tangible benefits accruing to the country.

There were also the multiple instances where former President Mahinda Rajapaksa saw nothing wrong in taking several dozen Ministers, MPs, defeated politicians, loyalist businessmen, artistes etc. along with him on official foreign trips, with over 70 such personages in the entourage of one such trip to the UN General Assembly sessions. To this day, nobody has been told of the benefits brought to the country by this nadey from this trip. Such profligacy of course was not strange to the Rajapaksas, going by the massive financial scams now being unearthed implicating the former first family.

No doubt the taxpaying public will salute this move by the President to restrict the foreign trips of Ministers, MPs and government functionaries. Any foreign travel by government politicians should show results. No one will object to family members accompanying the Minister or MP provided the expense is borne by the politician concerned. For too long has foreign travel by politicians being taken for granted. The contagion had affected even Provincial Councillors and local government members. The broken culverts, pot holed roads, unattended garbage, blocked canals and waterways and other multifarious ills that has beset the towns, villages, tells a tale of how these foreign trips had benefited these local councillors.

In the distant past, foreign trips were undertaken by government Ministers only for the most urgent and pressing reasons. It was been reported that these Ministers and MPs returned the unspent per diem granted to them for these trips, back to the government coffers. It is unclear if the practise is still in vogue. If not, instructions should be issued that all unutilized money be handed back upon the return from foreign trips, by government ministers and officials.

Today, Ministers are only too eager to rush for events abroad connected to their ministry subjects. Of course there are events that may specifically require the Minister's presence, in which case he/she has no alternative. There are also Ministries, due to whose technical nature, the Minister concerned may have to accompany the relevant officials and experts abroad to make a final assessment of things. In addition there are also reciprocal visits where government politicians get invited abroad by visiting foreign dignitaries, or the Minister's counterpart, in which case too foreign visits undertake by the politician concerned is unavoidable. However there are also instances where our envoys can perform the function of the Minister at the other end, obviating his/ her need to be present in person. This would save the unnecessary expense of the Minister making the trip.

We are here not kill joys, frowning on the opportunity for our people's representatives and their minions to enjoy the luxury of a foreign trip or two. There are MPs hailing from not so privileged backgrounds and who had risen the hard way, who deserve a chance for overseas travel. Nobody will begrudge them this harmless indulgence. What is objectionable is Ministers, MPs and officials making this a habit, not considering the fact that they are using public money to have a good time. They all can take an example from a former Prime Minister no less. Dr. W. Dahanayake is his name. Never in his six decade long political life did he set foot on foreign soil.

Be that as it may, the main plank of the Yahapalanaya campaign was to cut down on waste, put an end to profligacy and put the tax money of the public to good use. Hence the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has to ensure that it does not deviate from this pledge. Restricting unwanted and unproductive foreign travel by our peoples’ representatives, undertaken with taxpayers’ money, therefore is a move in the right direction.