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Guest of Honor Address to the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka.

Thank you for the honor of inviting me to this year’s 20^th annual session of the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka.

It is a special pleasure to be able to address an organization that represents 38 Professional Associations, with a combined membership of over 34,000 professionals; an organization that has as its vision to provide leadership and development of Sri Lanka’s professions; and an organization that is guided by high professional and ethical standards.

The OPA exemplifies the critical and positive role civil society can play in a country’s growth and development.  For more than three decades, you have advanced Sri Lanka’s economic, social and development policies by bringing business, civil society, and the general public together to ensure the government is accountable, transparent and efficient.

I would especially like to commend the OPA on your current anti-corruption initiatives.  Your Bribery and Corruption Monitoring Committee and its anti-corruption plan have brought positive attention and greater transparency to a problem that thrives on apathy and opacity.  Indeed I would like to focus my remarks this evening on the importance of good governance to help Sri Lanka reawaken as a paradise isle, the theme of this year’s conference.

Good Governance

In the words of one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, democracy involves government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."  Good governance provides the mechanism and safeguards for citizens to speak freely and exercise their legal rights.  It should be participatory, transparent and accountable.  It respects the rule of law.  And good governance promotes equality by giving even the poorest and the most vulnerable a voice in a country’s decision-making process.  
Just as a government must provide its people with the freedoms they need to live and prosper, the people must also keep the government accountable to them and behave responsibly as empowered citizens.  This is what ensures good governance in a democratic society.

America’s System of Checks and Balances

As we know, instances of bad governance and corruption affect all countries, including the United States.  The American government and its people do not tolerate corruption and have instituted processes and institutions to ensure that our President and the branches of our government are faithfully serving the public. 

Our founding fathers, in the U.S. Constitution, foresaw that the three main branches of government -- the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary -- should have separate responsibilities, yet be able to balance and limit one another's authority.   For example, the president checks the power of Congress with the ability to veto laws that Congress passes.  The Congress limits the power of the President by controlling spending.  And the judiciary limits the power of both Congress and the President by determining whether or not laws and executive actions are legal under the Constitution.

To help Congress exercise its oversight responsibilities over the Executive Branch there is the Government Accountability Office.  The GAO audits, evaluates and investigates the use of public funds and related federal programs and activities.  If you were to check the GAO’s web page today, you would see a wide range of reports that are critical of the Executive Branch, including:  
Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks
Defense Acquisitions: Department of Defense's Research and Development Budget Requests to Congress Do Not Provide Consistent, Complete, and Clear Information

Another institution that provides an important oversight function is the Offices of Inspector General.  Each office is autonomous and acts as a general auditor for a specific government agency or military organization.  OIG offices examine their agencies' operations to ensure they comply with government policies, including prevention of waste, fraud, and abuse.  In my last post in Delhi, an OIG team spent 6 weeks examining all our accounts and management and fortunately for me, gave us good marks or I would not be standing here! 

Another check on all senior government officials, including elected officials, is that we must fill out each year a lengthy public disclosure form in which we disclose all our assets and those of our spouses and children, including property, stocks, bank holdings and all gifts above a certain nominal value.  Each submission is checked against the previous year to be sure there are no unexplained gains.   
     
Lastly, we cannot forget how the rights to freedom of speech and press serve as an important check on the government.  These rights ensure that if the government takes improper or unpopular actions, the media, individual citizens, and civil advocacy groups can bring the actions to public attention and try to effect change. 

The U.S. has many nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organizations that protect our citizens by educating them about their rights, encouraging them to participate in civic life, and mobilizing their support for legislative reforms. These groups are often referred to as “public watchdogs” and just like the name suggests, these groups stand guard to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans.  They provide a watchful eye and demand that government serve the common good, rather than the special interests of a few.   

One of the most active and respected nonprofit organizations working for political change in America is called Common Cause.  It is best known for its advocacy to pass a campaign reform bill that bans political parties from raising and spending unlimited money from big donors.  Common Cause has also led efforts to ensure accountability in government by helping establish tough ethics standards for elected officials; limiting the practice of elected officials accepting lavish gifts from special interests; and advancing the passage of the Freedom of Information Act.

Freedom of Information Act

This last issue, freedom of information, is one I would like to highlight briefly.  The public right to access government information is vital to holding government accountable.  The public can better assess its government’s performance if it knows how government decisions were made and what the results of those decisions were.  Over seventy countries around the world have implemented some form of freedom of information legislation. 

Let me give you one example I witnessed first hand.  In 2005, India established its Right to Information Act.  Under this law, government agencies are required to disclose information to a petitioner within 30 days of the request.  Since the law went into effect, a number of high profile disclosures revealed corruption in various government schemes.  A draft Right to Information Law is largely prepared and ready to be voted on in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, but successive governments have lacked the political will to move it forward.  Parliamentary passage of this important legislation would mark an important milestone in Sri Lanka’s efforts to increase accountability and reduce graft.       

Ensuring Good Governance in Sri Lanka

Indeed, poll after poll shows that corruption and the absence of good governance have become major public issues in Sri Lanka.  This is a tribute to the efforts of groups such as OPA and institutions such as the Committee on Public Enterprises to highlight the problems.  But it is also an indictment of Sri Lanka’s own system of checks and balances.  Many of my Sri Lankan friends attribute that failure to a combination of the following factors: 

• First, the growing concentration of power over the last 20 years in the hands of the President, a trend that the current All Parties Representative Committee is seeking to address;
• Second, the failure of Sri Lanka’s Parliament to act as a check on the executive branch by, for example, developing a system of committees or other bodies that could effectively oversee the budgets and activities of the executive branch; and
• Third, the failure of the judiciary, with certain notable recent exceptions, to challenge the actions of the executive.    

Let me say a special word about corruption.  Corruption slows down economic development and reform, impedes the ability of developing countries to attract foreign investment, hinders the growth of democratic institutions, and concentrates power in the hands of a few.

With significant assistance from the OPA, Sri Lanka has taken several important steps in the fight against corruption.  It has enacted a bribery and corruption law and established a Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.  It has also enacted an Assets and Liabilities Declaration Law, put in place a law to control money laundering, and signed the U.N. Convention Against Corruption. You should be proud that many of these initiatives are a result of OPA’s tireless efforts. 

U.S. Assistance

There is, however, much more to be done to combat official corruption in Sri Lanka.  For the past 18 months, the U.S. and Sri Lanka have been working together to develop strategies to fight corruption.  For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development undertook a $2.3 million Anti-Corruption Program, or ACP, in Sri Lanka as part of its $135 million tsunami recovery and reconstruction program on the island.  The ACP provided technical support to the Sri Lankan Government to enable them to begin to identify corruption and to develop a national action plan to address it, thereby providing broader benefits to the country beyond the tsunami reconstruction program itself.  Training and technical assistance programs have strengthened the capacity of key government institutions; citizen participation in monitoring and reporting corruption has been increased; and the public has been engaged in the campaign to combat corruption and promote integrity. 

In July, USAID together with Sri Lanka's Auditor General’s Department and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, presented Sri Lanka’s first National Anti-Corruption Action Plan, which aims to mobilize citizens to combat corrupt practices and to promote principles of integrity.  A Consultative Council, with participation from OPA members, was established to provide a forum for discussion and coordination among interested individuals and organizations.  The ACP conducted more than 1,000 workshops, meetings, and seminars throughout the country involving more than 3,000 citizens of all ages and ethnic groups, producing a document that represents the views and hopes of a broad range of Sri Lankans. 

As the OPA's efforts show, the fight against corruption is a challenge that requires sustained, committed involvement by all elements of society:  government, civil society, business, and media, as well as individual citizens who are prepared to take risks, challenge the status quo, and stand up for what is right.  I congratulate OPA for its hard work and dedication, and I applaud each of you for accepting the responsibility of maintaining and promoting the integrity of your democratic government. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to address this distinguished gathering.