Nihal Sri Ameresekere, former Chairman of the Public Enterprises Reform Commission and the applicant of the two fundamental rights applications before the Supreme Court which resulted in the nullification of the privatization of Lanka Marine Services and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, said the President should be bold enough to appoint a special presidential commission to look into all the privatization deals since the economy was opened in 1977.

"The majority of the privatization deals since 1977 are suspect and the President should look into this because it is important to restore public and investor confidence. This is crucial for the development of the country’s economy," Ameresekere told the Island Financial Review.

"The two cases (on Lanka Marine Services and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation) proved that what had taken place had not been privatization but private and secret deals," he said.

Ameresekere said privatization in terms of public-private sector partnerships would be crucial if the country aspired to equitable economic growth.

"Privatization has now become a dirty word and rightly so considering the manner in which politicians, public officials and businessmen have behaved in the past," he said.

The bulk of the privatization deals have been done in an ad-hoc manner exploiting public property and failed to deliver results to consumers and employees; Ameresekere said it was an impediment to growth.

"A presidential commission must be appointed to look into these privatization deals so that the public and employees can take their grievances and complaints because taking matters before courts of law is time consuming and stressful," Ameresekere said.

He said the idea was not to pass out punishments on shady deals where public property had been virtually swindled.

"Penalties can be imposed with a three to five year payment period so that justice is done. The privatized entities can continue in business. What is required is that just and equitable measures are taken. This will go a long way in financing the government’s plans to resettle IDPs and steer development activities and also restore investor confidence in Sri Lanka," Ameresekere said.

He said it was imperative that such a commission be transparent and accessible to the general public.

South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), Shell, the Regional Plantation Companies, Ceylon Oxygen, Prima Flour and Nestles are some of the companies whose activities warranted further investigations on some deal or the other, especially with regard to the sale or lease of public properties.

"Up to 2004, about 49 percent of the profits earned by Regional Plantation Companies have been charged as management fees and there are bound to be other hidden charges as well," Ameresekere said.

His contention is that the companies have gained much through the use of public lands while the plantation workers did not seem to get a fair deal. Two separate reports on Regional Plantation Companies have been handed over to the President.

Ameresekere said many companies were a law unto themselves where even the Consumer Affairs Authority could not do much to regulate prices. Some even manipulated accounts or withheld vital information from the public domain, so that prices can be increased citing losses while an undisclosed subsidiary kept making huge profits.

Ameresekere said privatizations since 1977 had been carried out in an unregulated environment.

Time and time again the regulatory institutions in the country have been criticized for being toothless tigers, or worse, oblivious to what is happening fueling public suspicions.

Ameresekere said even when the Lanka Marine Services and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation cases were being fought in court, the Attorney General’s Department, Criminal Investigations Bureau and the Bribery Commission failed to assist court by carrying out any investigations on their own.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara, a leftwing politician and advisor to the President, who was the petitioner for the two cases, expressed some skepticism when he spoke to journalists earlier this week that the law enforcement agencies and other regulators would, at least now, do the need full.