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Reminiscences of a public servant who served four Presidents for a period of twenty years, during a Public Service career extending over a period of forty -four years..
by Chandra Wickramasinghe
Former Additional Secretary to the President, Ambassador to France and Senior Advisor to the President
Continued from Satmag of March 30
Furthermore, financial control was rigorously enforced and cases of malfeasance and corruption were few and far between.
Where defalcations and frauds were detected, swift disciplinary action followed, with the punishment meted out being very severe.
From 1966 to 1973,I worked in the Dept. of Agrarian Services,the Land Settlement Department, Ministry of Planning, respectively, till I was forced to take up duties in my old Dept. as Deputy Commissioner,by my good friend Sarath Amunugama, who happened to be Director Combined Services at the time.
Working in the Dept. of Agrarian Services was particularly rewarding as the range of services offered to the public by that Dept. was so variegated.The purchase and milling of paddy,minor irrigation works,paddy lands (implementation of the Paddy Lands Act),Crop Insurance and the distribution of fertilizer to paddy farmers were the primary functions of the Dept.This was the time of Mr.Dudley Senanayake's 'food drive' and the entire Dept. was geared to meeting targets and deadlines for expanding paddy production and the cultivation of subsidiary food crops.
The work assigned to us was very challenging and onerous as there were many employees in the Dept.like Store Keepers, who were defrauding the Dept.and accumulating private fortunes.They had to be kept on their toes by surprise inspections of paddy stores.My good friend and colleague the late Chula Unamboowe had a penchant for this and his surprise inspections were dreaded by store keepers. Circuits had also to be made to paddy growing areas to check on claims made for damage/loss to paddy harvests following droughts /floods.I found the work enjoyable as I was able to visit remote areas in outlying Districts and interact with rural farmers.These official circuits which were done in the company of Divisional officers were pleasurable as well as satisfying, particularly where we were able to recommend the release of funds for repairs to anicuts and minor irrigation systems, thereby ensuring uninterrupted Maha and Yala cultivations which were a great boon to paddy farmers who were dependent on water stored in these small village tanks for their paddy crops.Being a key Dept. in the agricultural sector,it was no easy task organizing the multifarious activities it had to engage in, covering the entire island.The success achieved in this endeavour was for the most part due to the dedication, combined with the exceptional ability, shown by officers like V. T. Navaratna, Eric de Silva, Rex Jayasinghe, I. K. Weerawardana, D. S. Wijesinghe etc. in discharging the tasks entrusted to them. I found this Dept., one of the more challenging Depts. I had served in as far as the official tasks one had to contend with, were concerned.
The Land Settlement Dept.in which I did a two year stint was one of the oldest Depts.with deeply entrenched colonial traditions.In fact,I was somewhat bemused when I first went to the Dept. to see fading photographs of imperious looking British Royalty looking down on you from the walls of the office! No one seemed to bother about them and they remained on the walls up to the time I left the Dept. on transfer. The Land Settlement Act was a powerful statute which empowered Settlement Officers to inquire into claims made by people who claimed pedigree title to such lands by virtue of their being in possession of valid title deeds, 'sannas' or by prescriptive right by their having cultivated such lands over a reasonable period of time.This meant Settlement Officers having at times to examine archival material etc. to determine the title of these claimants. Settlement work involved camping out in remote areas of the island where land still remained unsettled.Following colonial tradition and standards,the Dept.had comfortable carpeted tents which were pitched at the chosen site by an advance party comprising two labourers and a cook. At the start, I enjoyed the novelty of camping out in picturesque rural areas and going into the claims made by villagers..Where I entertained doubts about certain claims,the particular lands were visited by me in the company of an officer of the Dept.still carrying the pompous title of 'Interpreter Mudliyar' and the Village Headman (Grama Niladhari) of the locality. There were also extravagant claims made by interlopers in the area, which were summarily dismissed by my inspecting these properties personally. The Statute was so powerful that once an order settling a land on a person was made by the Settlement Officer it could not be challenged or set aside even by the Supreme Court.This over riding power conferred on the Settlement Officer was one of those residual colonial legacies which somehow continued to remain unexpunged from the Statute well into my time in the public service.
My second spell in the Housing Dept.as Deputy Commissioner ,which commenced in 1973 and continued uptil 1978,was less stressful for me, despite the enactment of two new laws viz.The Rent Act and the Ceiling on Housing Property Law which were looked upon by landlords as draconian legislative measures regulating rentals and house ownership. These gave much needed relief to tenants by regulating their monthly rentals and by providing security of tenancy. House owners who possessed houses in excess of the ceiling laid down, had to dispose of such excess houses to the tenants at relatively low prices.These were laws enacted by a Govt. with a strong socialist bent and had far reaching effects by way of the relief they afforded poor tenants.The Ceiling on Housing Property Law however,acted as a disincentive to investment in housing until amendments were later brought in, to encourage prospective developers to get into the construction industry by building middle and lower middle income houses for which certain tax concessions and financial incentives were proffered.
As Deputy Commissioner I was put in charge of the Administration Division of the Dept. and was also given the management of Flats and Housing schemes in the City.
With Mr. Pieter Keuneman becoming the Minister of Housing, managing minor employees who,without exception, claimed to be Communists, posed a big challenge! However,Mr. Keuneman,the gentleman he was,did not intercede on behalf of employees who had disciplinary problems and for the most part left me to handle such matters without any interference.I was able to manage my work to the satisfaction of everyone concerned as I was firm but fair in dealing with employees and their problems, which I had learnt by the time, was the best way to deal with people even under difficult circumstances.
From the beginning of my public service career, the one principle I followed scrupulously in interacting with employees as well as members of the public, was being even -handed,open and fair in my dealings with them and being free of any kind of prejudice. Once people realized that I was only carrying out my duty with no personal stake or interest in what I did, they learnt to accept even the unfavourable decisions taken against them, without bitterness or personal rancour.
When I once acted as Commissioner of Housing, the Secretary to the Ministry at the time, tried to badger me to transfer a house in a prime locality in Colombo to the tenant,under the Ceiling on Housing Property Law, at the behest of a powerful Minister. I stood my ground and refused to do so as such a transfer was irregular under the relevant legal provisions.He even fixed up a consultation in the chambers of a leading lawyer who is now deceased, who in turn tried to persuade me that it was perfectly in order to effect the transfer. I refused to budge from the position I had taken up and despite the consultation going on till late in the night, refused to yield to all the cajoling and their entreaties as I was convinced in my own mind that any such action on my part would have been irregular and untenable.It does pay, not to give in to pressure where you are convinced that you would not be able to justify your actions subsequently.
As I was handling the administration of flats and housing schemes in the city and its suburbs, there were innumerable problems which I had to inquire into, concerning disputes between neighbouring tenants which were often unimaginably petty. Curiously, the higher one's station in life, the disputes seemed to assume bitterly acrimonious proportions! In extreme cases, the more stubborn tenants were threatened with a transfer to the 'L' Block (called the Hell Block) in the Bambalapitiya flats, which often did the trick!
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