Nelum Gamage, a Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, was an erstwhile Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), established in 1994 to direct the institution of prosecutions for offences under the Bribery Act and the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, No. 1 of 1975. She is also Director/Consultant at the Legal Aid Commission at the Ministry of Justice.
The conversation began by asking Nelum why even with so much of information on corruption in the public domain, people still didn’t really give a damn about combatting it. Nelum makes the points that even with this information, there is still a lot of ignorance about systemic corruption and that until it impacts one personally, people don’t really take any action against it. We talk about private industry in Sri Lanka and its participation in corrupt practices, in spite of public claims of accountability and good corporate governance. Nelum addresses the point on whether it is worth for large investors, domestic or foreign, to stand up against corruption, when at the end of the day, all they are interested in is a good return of investment, which arguably some centralised form of corruption can guarantee them.
When asked whether public servants and the architectonics of governance – including local government – had moved progressively to combat corruption, given Nelum’s vast experience of over 30 years in public service, she answered in the negative, pointing to the increasingly mercenary lifestyles and nature of civil servants as a key problem in this regard.
Nelum’s background and experience speak volumes in this video, and her insights into how tenders work, how systemic corruption in government is conducted, how even the COPE reports tabled in parliament are now forgotten are excellent points to discuss further. Given her position at Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) and the bad rap it is getting in sections of the media, we also discuss issues of transparency and accountability for civil society organisations.
