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| Friday, 16 January 2004 |
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Mr Choksy's sense of humour by Prof.Rajiva Wijesinghe For a long time I believed that Mr Choksy was a serious man. Intense and tight-lipped perhaps, without much emotion, bionic (whether tin or teflon) - but a man who had a sense of purpose. Thus I described him a couple of years ago as a safe pair of hands and, though revelations in the 'Sunday Times' last year made me wonder quite how safe he was, I did not doubt that he took his job seriously. Looking through the budget this year however has convinced me that he is rather a practical joker of tremendous skill, a sort of Snubby, for those who recall their Enid Blytons. Called upon by his leader to ensure fiscal discipline, he has certainly cut ruthlessly in certain areas, Education for instance (down from 14.2 billion to 12.5) or Irrigation and Water Management (down from 5.5 billion to 5 billion). But elsewhere he has made an excess of money available, as though to make it clear that his main motivation was simply to keep the good guys smiling. I was led to this conclusion by Tyronne Fernando's Media Secretary's claim that Tyronne had saved the country 11 billion rupees by not spending 44 per cent of his travel budget. I don't think the poor child understands what saving means, but more significantly this implied that Tyronne had been allocated 25 billion for travel last year, which seemed an excessive amount. But this indeed is what Choksy had given Tyronne's Office for 2003, almost double the actual expenditure in 2002. And in case Tyronne wants to save the country even more money in 2004, he has another 25.5 billion. But Mr Choksy is generous to others too. The President's Office was allocated 10 million for travel, though she seems to have spent only 173,000 in 2002. Ranil's got 30 million, though his 2002 expenditure seems have been only 269,000. Certainly his actual expenditure in 2003 will be interesting to see, given the amount of rolling around he had to do. Illogically though, the list of activities the budget imposes on him, and the Output Indicators, make no reference to all this travel, concentrating on things like VIPs received and the number of Cabinet Papers submitted (only 23 were estimated in 2003, as opposed to 41 presented in 2002). Tyronne, it should be noted, has to produce much more to justify his 25 million. The only Output Indicator he has is the number of Conferences he attends, which rose from 8 in 2002 (costing 12 million) to 9 in 2003 and 10 in 2004 (for 25.5 million each year). But apart from these jollies, he is supposed to provide policy direction and guidance to Sri Lankan missions abroad. This may be why he sent out so many drivers, albeit their sense of direction was not tested beforehand. In addition, he is supposed to brief (sic) the government of (sic) international developments affecting Sri Lanka and advise the government in the formulation of foreign policy. Weighty stuff, and anyone who has discussed any policy matter with Tyronne will immediately understand why Choksy thought he had to give Ranil 30 million to go abroad too. I can just see Choksy chortling to himself (or when having a drink with Ranil and Chari) about the funds he gave Tyronne on the nation's behalf. These included in 2003 a million rupees as an entertainment allowance, though this did not appear in 2002 and has been withdrawn for 2004. And he has no money this year for newspapers and magazines, perhaps because Choksy has deduced he doesn't actually read anything that is relevant. Whatever the reasons, we have to assume that the budget was formulated after careful thought. Presumably Tyronne and his boys in the Foreign Ministry prepared estimates which were then examined by the Treasury. The nice man at the Treasury who advises us at the university on our own budgeting tells us to be careful because, after the Treasury does its bit, the Prime Minister then goes through everything himself, and cuts down on cadre and so on in the country's interests. I won't mention what he said about zero budgeting, because clearly Tyronne's travel allowances for 2003 and 2004 indicate that that concept was not in operation this year. So, after all this labour, with the Prime Minister according to our adviser burning the midnight oil after the Treasury has done its work, we have these splendid figures. Can anyone doubt that Choksy at least must have had enormous fun finalizing them and then presenting them to a grateful nation that selects him as Man of the Year for his efforts? |
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