Sunday Observer: Sri Lanka: Sunday, 11 August 2024.
For the first time, the
assets and liabilities of top public officials and elected representatives are
now in the public domain for any interested citizen to read from their
smartphone or laptop. This marks a historical break with the past when
Declarations of Assets and Liabilities (DALs) were left gathering dust in the
lockers of various competent authorities, with little verification.
Gone are the days when the DALs were wrapped in secrecy provisions and the public was kept in the dark even about who did not submit the DALs on time as per the law. Although any citizen could request DALs under the Right to Information Act, brought in 2017, such requests had often been frowned upon by the relevant authorities until very recently.
Last week, about 200 asset declarations, including that of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, and other elected representatives in the national legislature, were made public on ‘ads.ciaboc.lk’, a subdomain maintained by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). The DALs of other notables such as the Chief Justice, Central Bank Governor, Provincial Governors, Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and the Attorney General are also available on the website.
Getting to this point of open disclosure of wealth by key figures who walk in the corridors of power is a remarkable achievement in the fight against corruption in Sri Lanka. This transparent process allows any citizen to scrutinise the wealth of those holding high office and make a formal complaint against any suspected illicit enrichment or possible conflict of interest, if one has evidence. This is a potent reminder for the top tiers in public service that they are ultimately accountable to the people they serve.
New Asset Declaration Regime
This progressive step was a result of the Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) passed into law last year. It has also been a priority recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for which the deadline was set for July 31. As per the new anti-graft law, the CIABOC acts as the central authority for receiving, verifying, and giving public access to DALs after redacting certain sensitive information.
Unlike the previous asset declaration law where the President had been exempted from declaring his or her assets, the new law mandates the First Citizen as well as many other new categories of officers and personnel, including media proprietors and editors, to disclose their assets. According to the CIABOC, well over 100,000 individuals are required to disclose their assets now. The Commission is required to establish a centralised electronic system, which will automatically raise red flags when there is a sudden divergence of assets by Rs. 10 million or more.
However, the resource-strapped CIABOC is yet to properly install the said electronic system with machine-readable input. The Commission is still in the process of scanning and uploading the redacted versions of declarations manually, which is time-consuming.
“We have set a target of uploading 300 DALs of top officials to the website shortly. We hope to complete the category of Parliament in the next couple of weeks. Thereafter, anyone interested can identify who among them have not disclosed assets. Currently, there is only manual submission of DALs, but we hope to provide the facility of online submission next year.
“We have finalised a proposal to request funds for the electronic system. Until it comes into place, we will feed information manually. There can be initial hiccups as this is done for the very first time, and we are managing everything with limited staff,” an official of the CIABOC who wished to remain unnamed told the Sunday Observer.
Under the new anti-corruption law, election candidates are required to submit their asset declarations along with the nomination papers. “We have already requested those DALs from the Election Commission, and will upload them to the system as we receive them,” the official said. When asked whether it would be done before the election takes place, he added that it is uncertain.
While delays in Sri Lanka’s bureaucratic system are understandable, it must be emphasised that publicising the asset declarations of election candidates only after the election would not help the purpose of allowing citizens to make more informed voting decisions.
Humbling effect
The individuals to whom this law applies are required to give details of the properties, vehicles, jewellery, cash, and items in safe deposit vaults owned by them or their family members. They also need to declare their loans and overdrafts, business ventures, investments in government securities, and stocks and shares. They are required to submit their DALs not only at their first appointment but also annually, at retirement or dismissal, until two years after retirement and on an ad-hoc basis when a significant change occurs in their assets.
Public figures, long accustomed to an opaque governance system, may feel uneasy about having to give details of their personal wealth in a document, which they know will be made public except for certain information and could lead to severe legal consequences if falsified. However, the positive side of it is that they can debunk any false allegations or rumours about their illicit gains and ascertain their integrity through this means.
“The purpose of making asset declarations public is to get more assistance and material from the public to trace any hidden assets, not to develop any kind of jealousy or animosity towards those individuals. The asset declaration is a good governance tool that can improve the integrity of public service, but we have to strike a balance when using it. The public servant should not be vulnerable to security threats or be in a socially awkward position of being asked to donate money all the time as a result of disclosing his or her assets. That is why certain information has been removed before making the DALs public,” former CIABOC Director General and long-time state prosecutor Sarath Jayamanne, PC, said.
Fighting corruption
Getting public access to asset declarations has never been an easy achievement but is the result of a long-drawn battle by civil society, activists, and anti-corruption bodies.
Verité Research’s Governance and Anti-Corruption Research Division Head Sankhitha Gunaratne told the Sunday Observer that the demand for public disclosure of assets has been building for over eight years in Sri Lanka.
“The basis for that demand is that politicians often come into politics seemingly to make money, and public officials also often enrich themselves during their tenure. When the public is calling out widespread corruption, the response needs to be top-down. Publicising the asset declarations is a good way to go about it. If done effectively, it can rebuild trust in politicians and governance and send the message that their fight against corruption is not for appearance’s sake,” she said.
“The public representatives and officials need to disclose not only their wealth but also any assets held on their behalf by others, and their children’s assets, regardless of their age. I request the people to use all their energy and frustration about the corruption in the country to actually examine the asset declarations that are being made public because citizen engagement in the governance process is important. Look through your MPs’ asset declarations and see if what they say they have matches what they actually have. If you find any discrepancies, make sure you formally complain,” she added.
She, however, was vocal against the removal of balances of bank accounts before the DALs are published.
Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), a leading anti-corruption watchdog, has been a long-standing advocate for the public disclosure of asset declarations. It has been encouraging MPs to voluntarily publicize their asset declarations through an online platform created and maintained for that purpose by TISL since 2019.
“The call for public representatives and officials to release their asset declarations publicly has become louder and louder lately. Public representatives and officials are bestowed with high power to act as stewards of governance and are duty-bound to uphold public trust. Frequent allegations that wealth amassed by some MPs and officials is disproportionate to their known incomes have necessitated increased public scrutiny of them” TISL Executive Director Nadishani Perera said.
She, however, expressed her concerns on redacting crucial information such as bank balances and dates, adding that it defeats the purpose of making asset declarations publicly available. “Publishing asset declarations is a step in the right direction in improving the transparency and accountability of our politicians and public service. However, the effectiveness of this system depends on the implementation, level of public accessibility, and the strength of verification and enforcement mechanisms. It is important to ensure that crucial and sufficient information is available for involving citizens in holding public officials accountable.
“This process needs the active involvement of civic-minded citizens. Civil society and journalists also have a crucial role to play in uncovering illicit enrichments and conflicts of interest with the help of available information,” she added.
Gone are the days when the DALs were wrapped in secrecy provisions and the public was kept in the dark even about who did not submit the DALs on time as per the law. Although any citizen could request DALs under the Right to Information Act, brought in 2017, such requests had often been frowned upon by the relevant authorities until very recently.
Last week, about 200 asset declarations, including that of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, and other elected representatives in the national legislature, were made public on ‘ads.ciaboc.lk’, a subdomain maintained by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC). The DALs of other notables such as the Chief Justice, Central Bank Governor, Provincial Governors, Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and the Attorney General are also available on the website.
Getting to this point of open disclosure of wealth by key figures who walk in the corridors of power is a remarkable achievement in the fight against corruption in Sri Lanka. This transparent process allows any citizen to scrutinise the wealth of those holding high office and make a formal complaint against any suspected illicit enrichment or possible conflict of interest, if one has evidence. This is a potent reminder for the top tiers in public service that they are ultimately accountable to the people they serve.
New Asset Declaration Regime
This progressive step was a result of the Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) passed into law last year. It has also been a priority recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for which the deadline was set for July 31. As per the new anti-graft law, the CIABOC acts as the central authority for receiving, verifying, and giving public access to DALs after redacting certain sensitive information.
Unlike the previous asset declaration law where the President had been exempted from declaring his or her assets, the new law mandates the First Citizen as well as many other new categories of officers and personnel, including media proprietors and editors, to disclose their assets. According to the CIABOC, well over 100,000 individuals are required to disclose their assets now. The Commission is required to establish a centralised electronic system, which will automatically raise red flags when there is a sudden divergence of assets by Rs. 10 million or more.
However, the resource-strapped CIABOC is yet to properly install the said electronic system with machine-readable input. The Commission is still in the process of scanning and uploading the redacted versions of declarations manually, which is time-consuming.
“We have set a target of uploading 300 DALs of top officials to the website shortly. We hope to complete the category of Parliament in the next couple of weeks. Thereafter, anyone interested can identify who among them have not disclosed assets. Currently, there is only manual submission of DALs, but we hope to provide the facility of online submission next year.
“We have finalised a proposal to request funds for the electronic system. Until it comes into place, we will feed information manually. There can be initial hiccups as this is done for the very first time, and we are managing everything with limited staff,” an official of the CIABOC who wished to remain unnamed told the Sunday Observer.
Under the new anti-corruption law, election candidates are required to submit their asset declarations along with the nomination papers. “We have already requested those DALs from the Election Commission, and will upload them to the system as we receive them,” the official said. When asked whether it would be done before the election takes place, he added that it is uncertain.
While delays in Sri Lanka’s bureaucratic system are understandable, it must be emphasised that publicising the asset declarations of election candidates only after the election would not help the purpose of allowing citizens to make more informed voting decisions.
Humbling effect
The individuals to whom this law applies are required to give details of the properties, vehicles, jewellery, cash, and items in safe deposit vaults owned by them or their family members. They also need to declare their loans and overdrafts, business ventures, investments in government securities, and stocks and shares. They are required to submit their DALs not only at their first appointment but also annually, at retirement or dismissal, until two years after retirement and on an ad-hoc basis when a significant change occurs in their assets.
Public figures, long accustomed to an opaque governance system, may feel uneasy about having to give details of their personal wealth in a document, which they know will be made public except for certain information and could lead to severe legal consequences if falsified. However, the positive side of it is that they can debunk any false allegations or rumours about their illicit gains and ascertain their integrity through this means.
“The purpose of making asset declarations public is to get more assistance and material from the public to trace any hidden assets, not to develop any kind of jealousy or animosity towards those individuals. The asset declaration is a good governance tool that can improve the integrity of public service, but we have to strike a balance when using it. The public servant should not be vulnerable to security threats or be in a socially awkward position of being asked to donate money all the time as a result of disclosing his or her assets. That is why certain information has been removed before making the DALs public,” former CIABOC Director General and long-time state prosecutor Sarath Jayamanne, PC, said.
Fighting corruption
Getting public access to asset declarations has never been an easy achievement but is the result of a long-drawn battle by civil society, activists, and anti-corruption bodies.
Verité Research’s Governance and Anti-Corruption Research Division Head Sankhitha Gunaratne told the Sunday Observer that the demand for public disclosure of assets has been building for over eight years in Sri Lanka.
“The basis for that demand is that politicians often come into politics seemingly to make money, and public officials also often enrich themselves during their tenure. When the public is calling out widespread corruption, the response needs to be top-down. Publicising the asset declarations is a good way to go about it. If done effectively, it can rebuild trust in politicians and governance and send the message that their fight against corruption is not for appearance’s sake,” she said.
“The public representatives and officials need to disclose not only their wealth but also any assets held on their behalf by others, and their children’s assets, regardless of their age. I request the people to use all their energy and frustration about the corruption in the country to actually examine the asset declarations that are being made public because citizen engagement in the governance process is important. Look through your MPs’ asset declarations and see if what they say they have matches what they actually have. If you find any discrepancies, make sure you formally complain,” she added.
She, however, was vocal against the removal of balances of bank accounts before the DALs are published.
Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), a leading anti-corruption watchdog, has been a long-standing advocate for the public disclosure of asset declarations. It has been encouraging MPs to voluntarily publicize their asset declarations through an online platform created and maintained for that purpose by TISL since 2019.
“The call for public representatives and officials to release their asset declarations publicly has become louder and louder lately. Public representatives and officials are bestowed with high power to act as stewards of governance and are duty-bound to uphold public trust. Frequent allegations that wealth amassed by some MPs and officials is disproportionate to their known incomes have necessitated increased public scrutiny of them” TISL Executive Director Nadishani Perera said.
She, however, expressed her concerns on redacting crucial information such as bank balances and dates, adding that it defeats the purpose of making asset declarations publicly available. “Publishing asset declarations is a step in the right direction in improving the transparency and accountability of our politicians and public service. However, the effectiveness of this system depends on the implementation, level of public accessibility, and the strength of verification and enforcement mechanisms. It is important to ensure that crucial and sufficient information is available for involving citizens in holding public officials accountable.
“This process needs the active involvement of civic-minded citizens. Civil society and journalists also have a crucial role to play in uncovering illicit enrichments and conflicts of interest with the help of available information,” she added.
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