Dr. Ramesh Ramasamy 

Senior Lecturer – Department of Political Science of the University of Peradeniya

Q: What steps can we take to combat bribery and corruption?

A: Sri Lanka’s past experience shows that there have been six mistakes made by the country’s political leaders in combatting corruption since independence. These mistakes constitute the cycle of failure that must be broken to succeed in fighting corruption in Sri Lanka in the future.

A robust and effective anti-corruption campaign is needed in future, where both political leaders and critical citizens can fight together for a corruption free Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s mistakes include relying on corrupt political leaders, public officials and the police to curb corruption, and many anti-corruption acts (ACA); using the ACA as an attack dog against political opponents; establishing the ACA as a paper tiger to ensure its failure; and the absence of collective actions in fighting corruption or failure of collective actions.

The country’s anti-corruption reforms and measures are more likely to fail and remain futile, simply due to the absence of collective actions on the part of law enforcement agencies, political leaders, civil society, businesses and citizens.

Q: In your opinion, what mechanisms are necessary to hold public officials accountable for their actions and decisions?

A: The functioning of a bureaucratic accountability system requires an organised and legitimate principal-agent relationship.

It also depends on the quality of government, meaning that when public officials exercise public power to make decisions, they must adhere to the key principles of quality of government such as impartiality, fairness, procedural justice, political neutrality, effectiveness and equality before the law, which is more likely to enhance bureaucratic accountability.

The right to information (RTI), social auditing, the Open Government Partnership, the citizens’ charter and collaborative governance are effective tools to enhance accountability on the part of the bureaucracy.

Q: What role does citizen participation play in promoting good governance?

A: Critical citizens can play an important role in promoting good governance. Active participation in the governance process through the Open Government Partnership, co-production of public services, evaluating institutional performance, promoting meritocracy and collective actions could foster good governance.

Sri Lankan citizens must understand that they have the power to expel a government when it blatantly breaches the social contract and people’s mandate, irrespective of party or political affiliation, ethnicity, religion, class and so on.

This is key to building good governance and accountability on the part of representative institutions.