Deputy Leader of the United National Party and Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the CIMA Business Club on Tuesday invited the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to support the establishment of a transparent and accountable administration.

He drew the attention of the participants to a an unacceptable situation during the past 35 years of independence during which the accounts of public corporations were not submitted to Parliament for about 12 to 15 years after the closing of accounts. This situation resulted in a massive waste of public funds with no responsibility or accountability being identified for such expenditure.

Our rules are obsolete and these further add to the confusion. In order to update the necessary laws various sub-committees have been appointed and they are working towards bringing in amendments or new laws as required. However the implementation of such laws could be effectively done only if supervised by professionals such as members of the CIMA.

A difficulty however arises when the services of CIMA members are to be used for the betterment of government and local government administration, due to the relatively lower salaries and fringe benefits. However it is proposed to obtain the professional services of proven business leaders who are members of the CIMA by requesting members to serve as consultants on the basis of an honorarium.

Moving on to the current economic situation Minister Jayasuriya said that the government had been able to turn around a negative economy to a positive one and had also succeeded in providing the farming community of this country a guaranteed price for their paddy which is above the cost of production. This has resulted in many luxury consumables such as TV’s, refrigerators, music set-ups and the like being sold in considerable quantities in farming areas indicating a more affluent lifestyle.

However the Minister accepted that the high cost of living which is a burden to the fixed income middle class population has yet to be solved. This the Government hopes to do by investing the foreign aid amounting to billions of rupees in the development of infrastructure while the task of creating wealth will be the function of the private sector.(GT)