Within two weeks two poor mothers throw their children to rivers in Sri Lanka

(March 22, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Another Sri Lankan woman threw her new born baby to a river on March 20, several days after a similar incident was highlighted by local media.

Just two days before the three-year-old toddler succumbed, the second baby was killed within three hours of its birth and was thrown into a river,

The incident was reported from Ambalangoda, a town in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka.

The mother was arrested and she had confessed about the crime. She told to police the child was conceived as a result of an affiar with a Bangladeshi as the woman was working as a housemaid in Dubai. The father of the child is a driver in the house, according to the woman's confession. The employers have sent her back after the pregnancy was disclosed.

This woman is also a tsunami victim as same as the first woman that threw her child to River Kalu two weeks ago. She is 41 years old and has five other children of whom two daughters are married. She is a single mother abandoned by her legal husband.

Lessons to be learnt from Tsunami Reconstruction Process for the development of the North and the East of Sri Lanka

Transparency International, Sri Lanka -


(Photo: Baby 81 of tsunami fame, now five years old still lives in a half-built house with his parents in Kalmunai)

On this fifth anniversary of the Tsunami, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) remembers with great sadness all those who lost their lives, the surviving family members and those who lost their property. It is time to reflect on and learn lessons from the great challenges that we faced with the tragedy when Sri Lanka stands an exponential development potential aftermath of the war. Such reflection would be, in turn the true tribute to those who lost their lives and others who survived with enormous difficulties.

In 2007, TISL obtained complaints relating to the reconstruction process with the principal objective of drawing attention of the relevant authorities to such problems. The complaints received were perused, categorized and forwarded to the relevant government agencies. However, there was no response from any of the government agencies on them. The major issues raised in the complaints were sub-standard quality of the newly received houses, petty corruption by the government officers at the local level and high politicization in the selection of beneficiaries. These problems still lie unexplained undermining the level of confidence among the general public about the state. Thus unfortunately Sri Lanka has failed to learn lessons of governance challenges from post tsunami experience.

The lack of legitimised right to information law or any practice promoting right to information for the people was one of the key problems that marred the tsunami reconstruction process with a significant element of information withholding and a general clamming up by government officials when such information is requested. When information was requested about the utilization of the money received during the recovery process, some government officers refrained from providing them possibly due to fear of persecution by higher authorities in their department and ministries.

It is extremely important to draw attention to these issues in the context of reconstruction in the North and East of Sri Lanka where immense damage is caused on human lives and property together with the fact that huge sums of capital is flowing into the region at present. The three major concerns which the government failed to address in the Tsunami Reconstruction Process will equally be applicable and will jeopardise the post- conflict development in the North and the East unless necessary action is taken immediately. These are: a) the need for participatory development process including planning and implementation through legitimate public institutions based in the areas themselves, b)the restructuring of centralised, narrowly politicised and non-representative administrative mechanisms so that they are more accountable and transparent to local communities, and c)the de-politicisation of the communities at the local level. Similar to the Tsunami reconstruction process, the reconstruction of the North and the East poses a great risk of corruption because of large sums involved, the lack of local accountability or even participation of beneficiaries and the excessive centralization of decision-making.

A brief Financial Analysis

The following table shows the financial situation of Tsunami Reconstruction work by the end of the year
2006. This is the money received through the government approved channels by various donors. This information was obtained from the Development Assistance Date Base (DAD) in March 2007. However, this information is not currently available for the public as the DAD website doesn’t exist anymore.

TISL’s effort to obtain the most recent financial information was met with lackluster responses by the officials. TISL’s observation in this regard was that officials were either reluctant to divulge the proper information or that they did not have the accurate figures about current expenditure status.
Available statistics as per March 2007:

Committed (USD) Disbursed (USD) Expended (USD)

2,126,771,858 1,075,375,348 603,443,908



Note:
•Committed funds – Funds promised by the donors
•Disbursed – Funds handed over to the implementing agencies
•Expended – Funds spent on various projects

According to the available information, there is a difference between the committed and the disbursed funds. When inquired about this difference, the implementing agencies informed TISL that the amounts of money initially promised was not disbursed by the donors, mainly due to the deadlines of these projects not being met. Some donors have not been satisfied with the progress of the projects and have therefore withdrawn from their commitment after paying the first installment.

The difference between the disbursed and the expended has been a controversial issue that does not have a credible explanation. While some officials were reluctant to divulge the information, there were some responsible bodies, who implied that the funds have been utilized by the government for other purposes.

There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of USD 471, 931,440. Some government officials rejected the fact of such a missing amount though they have failed to give any explanation about the figures produced.

When the higher officials at Auditor General’s Department of Sri Lanka were contacted in December 2009, TISL was informed that there is no audit conducted on funds received for Tsunami Reconstruction process since the last audit by the former Auditor General in 2005.




Conclusion

a. TISL believes that it is a prime right of the people in Sri Lanka to know the true picture of the Tsunami recovery process. Therefore, the government should take every possible step to assure and respect the right to information of the general public of the country. Thus an audit should be done by the government to explain the utilization of the money received and the challenges faced.

b. All steps should be taken to arrest and remedy the existing problems in the recovery process. The participation of the public is paramount in this regard.

c. A special Committee of the Public Accounts Committee or an Independent Commission be constituted to review any remaining issues relating to the Tsunami Recovery Process and make necessary recommendations and lessons leant as related guidelines for the future.

e. TISL reiterates the importance of collating and documenting all the information of Tsunami 2004 in relation to both the relief and recovery process. Such deliberation is important in the context of current development in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

Unless the political leadership is committed to these recommendations, similar unfortunate experience will be repeated in the reconstruction of the North and the East of Sri Lanka.

why didn't so much money bring prosperity to tsunami victims of Sri Lanka?

(December 27, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Transparency International of Sri Lanka says that out of 2.2 billion dollars received for relief of the victims of December 26, 2004 tsunami, 603.4 million dollars was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster whille another half a billion dollars was missing.
"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 471.9 million dollars," said the Transparency International statement issued in Colombo adding an "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced," the group said.

The death of 31,000 people have become the birth of a new wealth for a bunch of swindlers not related to the victims.Both Sri Lankan public as well as the international philanthropers have a right to know how the aid money was spent as the nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami.


An initial government audit in 2005 found that less than 13 percent of the aid had been spent, but there has been no formal examination since, Transparency International said. Many thousands of tsunami victims still live in temporary camps, IDP camps or half-built houses while the managers of the funds, the project managers and the politicians live in luxury houses.

In 2005,the Criminal Investigation Department sought permission from the courts to investigate the accounts alleging that there was a breach of trust concerning nearly 83 million Sri Lankan rupees (approx 820,000 US dollars).Sri Lankan media had alleged that money transfered by international donors to the Prime Minister's national relief fund was credited to the privately run "Helping Hambantota" fund. The lawyers of the Prime Minister told the Supreme Court that the Cabinet of Ministers were informed of the monies in ‘Helping Hambantota’ fund, which is monitored by Secretary to the PM, Lalith Weeratunga.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Sarath Silva (see photo) ordered Criminal Investigation Department to temporarily halt the investigation after considering a petition by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Prime Minister then is the President now and the Secretary to the PM is the Secretary to the President now. Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva retired and some of his court rulings have been challenged legally.
 

Sri Lanka's never-ending post-tsunami disaster

(December 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Five years ago, on December 26, world wept with tens of thousands of Sri Lankans as tsunami hit the island taking at least thirty thousand lives with the deadly wave. I lived in an area in the southwestern plains many miles away from the coast and the news of sea waves rushing overland did not rouse my enthusiasm as I had never heard of tsunami although I was entering into the fourth decade of my life.

Herath, a friend of mine came in a motorcycle with worried face since his mother was bound Galle in a train while rumors were spreading that a train had been toppled by sea waves. Later, in the evening, I, my wife Esha, Herath and one more friend went on two motorcycles to Paiyagala where our relations lived and we had no information on their fate since telephones were out of order. Their house was invisible in debris. Nihal, one of our relatives was pulling out a mud-soaked mosquito net from the wreckage. Luckily, none of them were hurt although the van they had just started to go for a wedding was found drifted away for hundreds of meters. Few people died in the villages around Paiyagala. But many of the other coastal villages were not so lucky.

Herath later discovered that his mother had reached her destination safely in the train that left earlier than the ill-fated one. However, he left with his video camera to capture the scenes of the disaster, many of what were later punished in the newspaper that we both were working.

While, I was returning home with my wife late in the evening, a night wedding party was underway close to my village and a band was playing 'baila' as the guests were dancing as if they had not heard the news. They had probably watched the TV but it was an auspicious day for weddings. After all Sri Lankans did not weep as much as the big and small philanthropists in other countries did. Sri Lankans transited to the post-tsunami period so lightly.

Even school kids of some countries sent their savings to Sri Lanka to help rebuild the lives of the victims of tsunami. Non-governmental organizations did all sorts of nonsense from buying sports utility vehicles to manage the post-tsunami operations to publishing thousands of copies of numerous reports that had no effect on the lives of the tsunami victims.

Media began to publish heart rending stories and Baby 81 is the best example of media fiascoes. (Photo above: Abilash's grief-stricken parents in hospital / Photos below: Abilash now and a music album that sold his name)

He was brought to the hospital by a villager who found him and, since he had no identification, was named after his hospital admission number: Baby 81.
After his injured parents got out of another hospital two days later and went to claim him, a media storm erupted, which eventually forced Abhilash's parents to go to the police and courts to get their son back.
They were even arrested when they tried to force their way into the hospital to get their son back and could only bring him home after the father supplied a DNA sample -- six weeks after the tsunami.
Subsequent accounts have pointed out the real story was blown far out of proportion -- there were no other couples trying to claim the child.
A TV crew filmed Baby 81 and the rushes were seen by a wire agency reporter. Whether it was a mistake in translation or some other kind of misunderstanding is unknown, but a report then ran that "nine desperate heartbroken women" were all claiming the child as their own.
But for Abhilash's father, Muruhappillai Jeyaraj, the unrelenting media hullabaloo over a vast misunderstanding has been a personal experience almost worse than the tsunami itseslf.
"I wish we all would have died in the tsunami," he told Reuters, holding Abhilash, 5, in his lap. "I would not have to tell this story again and again. Nobody will believe that there is no change in our lives."
ROCK ALBUM
Abhilash and his family were flown to the United States for a 13-day trip with an interview on NBC's Good Morning America not long after the tsunami. They were never paid for the appearance, Jeyaraj insists.
An American alternative rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club called their 2007 album Baby 81 and sold 14,000 copies in its first week.
What should have brought in help, only brought harm, said Jeyaraj, a barber by profession.
"Abhilash has become a dole for all the media, just to get his picture or visual and give publicity. But that publicity has been useless for him or us," Jeyaraj said.
People assumed he was getting rich off the publicity and began hounding him. He could not get local aid because charities believed he had been paid for the trip to New York. He moved the family from their village in Kalmunai to the city of Batticaloa, on Sri Lanka's east coast. (Reuter)

Politicians were also in the receiving end of the benefits in the post-tsunami period. Their associates, some are even not the victims of the tsunami disaster have received two, three houses and they have rented them now. Many actual victims of the disaster still live in half-built houses while thousands of people still languish in refugee camps in Colombo district. Any traveling along the Galle Road can see such camp in a state building in Blind and Deaf School Junction, Rathmalana in the city outskirts. A dirty two-story building that is near collapse stands shabbily with cloth lines everywhere and people gushing out of it like ants.

In 2005,the Criminal Investigation Department sought permission from the courts to investigate the accounts alleging that there was a breach of trust concerning nearly 83 million Sri Lankan rupees (approx 820,000 US dollars).Sri Lankan media had alleged that money sent by international donors to the Prime Minister's national relief fund was credited to the privately run "Helping Hambantota" fund. The lawyers of the Prime Minister told the Supreme Court that the Cabinet of Ministers were informed of the monies in ‘Helping Hambantota’ fund, which is monitored by Secretary to the PM, Lalith Weeratunga.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Sarath Silva (see photo) ordered Criminal Investigation Department to temporarily halt the investigation after considering a petition by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Prime Minister then is the President now and the Secretary to the PM is the Secretary to the President now. Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva retired and some of his court rulings have been challenged legally.

Even the populist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and the People's Liberation Front (JVP) misappropriated the funds raised in the name of the tsunami disaster. Nobody knows what happened to the monies they collected world wide and island wide. Many of those from international donors to local businessmen who lavishly delivered promises to help the victims now remain silent after getting publicity for their philanthropic ideas that did not materialize.