Plunder of a multi million dollar grant

By Frederica Jansz  A multi million dollar project approved by the World Bank to reduce poverty in some 1,000 villages in Sri Lanka is not only being poorly managed, but monies from the multi million dollar grant are being plundered to the extent that the income levels of the targetted poor will not be increased by even 10 per cent if the project continues to be managed in the present manner.

The World Bank in March this year approved a US$ 51 million grant to support the government of Sri Lanka's effort to reduce poverty in rural areas. The grant, which is provided by the International Development Association, the World Bank's concessionary arm, finances the first phase of a proposed three-phase programme which will ultimately cover between 4,000 and 5,000 villages throughout the country over a 12 year period.

Objective

These monies were approved to finance the community development and livelihood improvement Gami Diriya project to be initially implemented in approximately 1,000 villages over four years.

The programme's objective is to enable poor people in rural areas to improve their livelihoods and quality of life, with the first phase focusing on areas in southern Sri Lanka. The project was named Gami Diriya meaning 'strength of a village' and is intended to reflect how the programme will be driven by the community and empower the poor.

But core team members of the World Bank sponsored project are furiously angry with the Project Director, Dr. Gamini Batuwitage and are accusing Batuwitage of gross misconduct as well as misappropriation of project funds amounting to millions of rupees.

In a letter dated May 18, 2004, the World Bank team has written to the Prime Minister as well as to Samurdhi Affairs Minister, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who overlooks these project activities. They state they are of the view that this project under Dr. Gamini Batuwitage is being thoroughly mismanaged, "where project activities are being carried out in an unplanned ad-hoc manner, project funds mishandled, misused and wasted."

The matter had also been brought to the notice of former Samurdhi Minister S. B. Dissanayake,former Samurdhi Ministry Secretary, Dr. Mrs. Kumari Navaratne and to the present Secretary, Hapangama. Jagath Pushpakumara, the new deputy minister for samurdhi has also been briefed, but no action has yet been initiated to prevent or investigate the grave misdeeds of Project Director, Batuwitage.

Dr. Gamini Batuwitage was previously a senior additional secretary at the Food and Agriculture Ministry. He is in addition to being a director on this project a director of a private institution named Mihi Diya Foundation which is situated at Ananda Balika Mawatha, Pagoda Road, Pitakotte.

The World Bank team maintains that a part of the grant amounting to US$ 495,000 will have to be returned for non utilisation as by end March this year, only US$ 325,000 had been used.

No team work

They charge there is no effective team work and activities are performed in an ad-hoc manner, individually, in a reactive mode and not a proactive mode and more often than not, Dr. Batuwitage uses Gami Diriya resources for promotion work done for his own institution.

On one occasion at least Dr. Batuwitage is charged with having organised a workshop on "SRI Method of Farming" which is one of his personal projects and one that does not come under the purview of Gami Diriya. But he used staff including facilitators and coordinators together with specialist staff providing accommodation and meals for participants who attended the workshop at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agricultural Research and Training Institute, even though the workshop per se was of no use to them or to the Gami Diriya project.

Having voiced disgust with the manner in which this project is being handled the procurement specialist, environment specialist, gender development specialist and information education and communication development specialists all left their services within six to seven months of work due to mismanagement and abuse of project funds.

Dr. Batuwitage it is alleged is singularly handling the project thus ignoring the subject matter specialists. This has apparently given him wider room to indulge in malpractices.

Project team positions have not been filled during the last 12 months of the project and only seven out of 14 positions could be filled, as the World Bank experts accuse Dr. Batuwitage of adopting irregular and unprofessional practices.

The team of World Bank experts in their letter to the Prime Minister maintain this project to be participatory. But, that it is not managed in a participatory fashion. There is no teamwork and members of the national team are left in the dark. Their expertise is not respected.

For instance, now there is a proposal by Dr. Batuwitage to recruit project officers on a lower salary instead of national core team members so that his blanket authority to indulge in fraudulent activities would not be challenged. In fact, several members of the national core team were forced to leave the project by Dr. Batuwitage allegedly creating an unhealthy atmosphere submitting false, baseless and unfounded allegations against them to the secretaries and the World Bank.

The project also claims to be community driven and therefore "demand-driven." However, it is not designed or implemented on the basis of community feelings or demand. For instance, communities have not been consulted during the design process and rigid rules, regulations, forms etc., have been introduced and the communities compelled to follow the instructions.

No guidance

The members of the national team it is alleged do not have proper guidance or work plans and, for most of the time, the individuals in the team work independently. As a consequence, the field-staff suffer and work is badly affected.

The World Bank team points out that this is certainly not the way a multidisciplinary expert team or a participatory demand-driven project should be handled. "It is a crime," they assert in their letter.

The World Bank team complain that a significant part of the funds received from the Japanese government has not been used and will have to be returned.  "Due to lack of teamwork and proper planning, the project under the direction of Dr. Gamini Batuwitage and Dr. Terrence Abeysekera, national core task leader, has failed to use funds timely and effectively," they state.

Dr. C. M. Wijeyratne, serving as international consultant to the World Bank team in a hard hitting report on the matter has reiterated the project has not adopted an efficient catalytic process to nurture a "healthy financial management culture" within communities. Village companies are also not being used for business purposes despite there being enough experience in this country with farmer companies purchasing farmers' produce, including paddy, lime, etc. and selling them to the private sector through legal contracts.

"I can say for sure that this project will not deliver the outputs," Dr. Wijeyratne has stated, adding, "As at present the Gami Diriya project does not have a powerful plan to increase incomes of the poor. I am confident that the project if not modified, will not increase incomes even by 10%. This means it is not a poverty reduction project."

The World Bank team in their letter to the Premier charge that Dr. Batuwitage together with the connivance of Dr. Abeysekera as well has awarded the majority of the assignments and contracts of this project to parties known to him bypassing all governmental tender procedures.

For instance he has got his fellow director at Mihi Diya Foundation, Neela Keerthipala Adhikaramge also employed in this project as a project officer from October 2003 upto now. Recruitments for this project have been made through an organisation called LAN Management Development Services situated at Nawala Road, Nugegoda in order to circumvent procedures laid out by the government for recruitment.  LAN Management Development Services is not even registered as a company in the Registrar General's office. The total money involved in this transaction with LAN Management Development Services to date is around Rs. 4 million, with excess payments made to the tune of over Rs. 2 million.

Irregularities

Neela Adikaramge who was selected by Dr. Batuwitage to serve as project officer on the Gami Diriya programme is also a partner of LAN Management Services and is presently working as the company secretary at LAN.

In their letter to the Prime Minister, the World Bank team maintains that LAN is paid a monthly sum of around Rs. 400,000 for assigning 10 officers to the project office. The profit for LAN as a result is around Rs. 250,000 every month.

Resources Foundation of Panadura the team states in their letter also belongs to a friend of Dr. Batuwitage and this office is paid a monthly sum of around Rs. 300,000 for assigning 20 facilitators and coordinators to the project. This is only a one man company and the profit to the foundation as a result is around Rs. 50,000 every month.

By-passing procedure

These two institutions it is alleged did not even respond to newspaper advertisements calling for expressions of interest to provide technical and administrative assistance to the project. They were selected by Dr. Batuwitage, by-passing governmental procedures, even though several other institutions had officially applied and got pre qualified for selection, but were rejected by Dr. Batuwitage. Sarvodaya SEEDS and ITDG were two interested parties who qualified, but were turned down.

Several persons who were working for an institution belonging to Dr. Batuwitage but who did not have the required qualifications and experience have however been selected and employed as facilitators and coordinators through the recruitment agency calling itself Resource Foundation purely on recommendations made by Dr. Batuwitage.

Short term consultancies have been given to his chums and his friends in and around Maharagama, where Dr. Batuwitage resides. But his efforts to bring in a neighbour failed when the former rural economy secretary did not grant him permission.

In the month of February, 2004 Dr. Batuwitage left for Washington to discuss the main project and he stayed for one month in the USA whereas the rest of the delegation returned to the island after one week.

Dr. Batuwitage it is alleged is outright plundering the resources allocated to the Gami Diriya project for his own personal work and that of the institutions he owns and manages. (See box)

The World Bank team concludes this mode of management and certain strategies of the project would be harmful to Sri Lanka, mainly because there is no transparency or a participatory decision-making process. At the end of the day it is an important project aimed primarily to uplift the standards of the poor, but the manner in which it is being run at present is only serving to block and prevent any benefits from actually reaching the poor, they assert.

Back to the headline