By Charminda Rodrigo   The Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) is reviewing the entire University system in the country, COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti said. He told The Morning in an interview that COPE is investigating several state institutions and prohects launched by the state. The MP also emphasised that COPE was not formed with the idea of forcefully unearthing misappropriations. Excerpts: Q: You spearheaded the COPE investigation on the controversial Central Bank Bond issue. But thereafter we have not seen such active participation in any other investigation. Is there anything holding you back from continuing your good work?  A: COPE has not been formed with the idea of forcefully unearthing misappropriations. We review and investigate the cases that are been submitted to us.  After the Bond review we were able to submit few other reports to the purview of the parliament. Q: What other areas of investigations are underway these days? A: These days we are reviewing the entire University system. We also have reviewed and established that Lanka Transformers Limited (LTL) is an entity under the Electricity Board. There is another investigation underway regarding the ‘Maga Naguma’ program. There are many investigations underway as we speak. Q: So COPE is not a dead duck? A: People may feel that the COPE is a dead duck for the simple reason that we are not engaged in public displays. People want a looting government to catch looters of the previous regime. People appoint looters to run the government and expect us to catch them red handed. Any person with a sane mind would understand that this could never be achieved. Q: In what areas have you found this government to be corrupt?   A: Well my subject area comprises of statutory bodies such as corporations, boards, Authorities and funds. There are corruptions taking place in all these places at different levels. What really important is not to assess the size of the misappropriation. Whatever the magnitude we should not let looters to go unpunished. If I’m to tell you one instance, there is a water generation project in place in Pathadumbara. There they have estimated $299,000 to remove 22 trees. Rs.1,100,000 had been allocated as Custom levis in the estimate. Had they asked any henchman of a local politician in the area, he would have taken them for free. There are some Mega projects under way at present just like the previous government. Mind you that Mega projects should be launched as a part of developing the country. But it will serve no good if the projects are in place to loot the funds obtained as high interest loans. Misappropriations do not base on the size of the institution. Wrong is indeed a wrong doing. Q: The main sources of government revenues are taxes, fines and loans. You were emphasizing on public enterprises, ideally they are being formed to make revenue to the government to ease the weight mounting on public when utilizing government revenue instruments. Don’t you think these institutions have become inefficient to performing what they were entrusted with? A: More than the exiting corruption destructive wastage in those institutions has become a serious issue. In many of the cases the amount lost due to waste is much higher than corruption. There are officials who are set out to initiate these activities. Most unfortunate issue here is sometimes even the politicians are also have been played out by these corrupt individuals. In institutions like the electricity board the officials have been able to manipulate the political authority to initiate their corrupt practices.  Also in some instances we see the officials have been doing all these misappropriations to enhance the image of the politician who had appointed them in the positions. Just see the amounts some institutions spend over maintaining their offices, procure vehicles, foreign tours and sometimes to purchase chairs etc. Q: You mean to say it is a mafia in a different form? A: Yes indeed. Not to forget this is a mafia in this country. People are at the view that the soaring electricity prices are due to drought, but it’s not. There are various methods and practices they have formulated when doing it. Either the politician is scared of the official or the official is scared of the politicians. He who takes the lead will take on corruption to the extreme. No politician is empowered to endorse cheques except for respective chairmen of local government bodies. So when corrupt officials get to work under corrupt politicians they all start working hand in hand to get all the dirty work done causing grave destruction to public funds. Such good example for this is the case against Lalith Weerethunga. There is no commendation extended to good public officials at any level. Even the media personifies the corrupt politicians in a greater deal leaving no acclamation to the rest. Q:  You extend your opinion on economy time to time. The exchange rate had hit its highest value of Rs.163 this week. How do you see our economy taking shape? A: The main drawback of our economy is the heap of debts we have to shoulder no matter we like it or not. By 2018 Sri Lanka owes Rs. 1030 Billion as borrowings to other countries and external organizations. Mind you all these funds come with an interest. Had we utilized all these borrowings in the most appropriate way the country would have had benefitted in the long run. Any government could have done wonders with these funds. They could have gravely uplift the standards of agriculture, education, health etc. But have we done that? That’s where the real question lies. More than obtaining loans, misusing that hampers our economy. Major portion of our debts comprise of loans obtained to settle the trade deficit. Also depreciation of our rupee causes some bad effects to our economy. See let’s assume a loan which had been obtained when the exchange rate Rs.100 per $ and when the repayments starts now we are losing Rs.63 straight due to the depreciation. We have to rely on foreign funds due to the fact that we have accustomed to live on debs and the trade deficit getting enhanced drastically. Look at our imports and exports. It is fair by any mean to import what you do not manufacture within the country. If you had notice it right see the number of Chinese made kites we saw in the air. Do we need such imports? What will happen to the creativity of our children?  We do not need to halt all imports, but we should have some discipline in deciding what we need to import our country. Look at the number of imports we have allowed when we have the same manufactured within the country. All these will sum up to the bad shape of our economy. Our domestic production should be nurtured. How do you achieve that when the government allows the low cost substitutes to flood our market? Q: Chinese officials in a statement issued recently have said that the economic down turn in Sri Lanka is not due to obtaining Chinese loans. How do you see this? A: As I said earlier it’s not about obtaining loans. It’s about how we utilize them. Have we achieved the economic benefit that we have planned? What is the value for money in the loans that we have obtained? Also to make a remark on the loans, see when we obtain a loan it will be released part by part. Then we have to incur an additional amount as the retention fee on top of the loan interest and the instalment. This is something that is hardly spoken. When we analyze these figures the actual amount of interest is much higher than what it is depicted in the description. This hampers the growth of our economy. This will become a vicious cycle when the looting portion comes in to place. Q: When talking about the increase in the domestic production, the government launched the ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ project to address the capital issues of the micro level ventures and entrepreneurs. How do you see this? A: This will add no value to our economy. This is just a political bribe focussing the upcoming elections. Has the government carried out a feasibility study on this? Have they analyzed the sectors of industries and notified them to entrepreneurs? Banks are grating loans under ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ scheme for these individuals, what if the recipient defaults the loans? I see this entire project as a political game risking the entire banking sector at risk. Ask the heads of banks whether they like this project? This was something forcefully extended upon them. This will be a serious issue in the future.