A few months ago, Sri Lankans were worried about the re-emergence of the corona virus pandemic. A few weeks ago, our citizens were warned of an imminent foreign exchange debacle. Now, we are being cautioned about impending power cuts due to a shortfall in electricity generation.
This latest crisis is a classic example of inefficient administration, bad governance and how the government, from the very top, has lost its grip on the country leading to the country’s citizens suffering untold hardships as a result.
For the past several weeks, the public was treated to a series of mixed messages. We had the trade unions in the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) telling us that power cuts are indeed a reality and are here to stay. We also had engineers affiliated to the CEB endorsing that claim.
Then we had Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila, under whose purview the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) comes, telling us that that the CPC would not be selling fuel to the CEB because it is owed billions of rupees by its sister state institution- even if it meant that it would compel the CEB to impose power cuts and plunge the nation into darkness for several hours each day. Gammanpila was gung-ho enough to tell the CEB, “Without dollars, you wouldn’t be getting fuel”.
Capping it all is Power Minister Gamini Lokuge going public with his own statements, assuring us, on a day by day basis that there would be no powers cuts “today”- even when some areas experienced unofficial and unannounced power cuts despite the Minister’s public posturing.
All this sounds like a bit of a circus, with one arm of the government not knowing what the other is doing, leaving the long suffering public, both individuals and businesses, at the mercy of unplanned power outages.
Several issues need to be scrutinised here. Firstly, why were the ministries of Power and Energy split and delegated to two individuals who don’t seem to see eye to eye, or at least don’t seem to want to talk to each other and engage in a decent discussion, even when an issue of national importance such as the country’s electricity supply is at stake? President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s manifesto promised the allocation of ministries on a scientific basis. What ‘scientific’ basis was there to justify splitting the ministries of Power and Energy among two ministers?
Secondly, there was no massive natural disaster or other catastrophic event in recent times that would explain the country’s deficits in its capacity to generate electricity. This shortfall is due to its inability to purchase oil for electricity generation purposes which in turn is because the country does not have adequate foreign exchange resources at its disposal.
That didn’t happen overnight. In this day and age of advanced technology, countries plan their power generation capacity years in advance and are able to predict their projected sources of power and any anticipated shortfalls, for example due to an expected depletion in hydropower reservoirs due to changing weather patterns.
They then adopt measures to overcome these shortfalls, so that a continuous supply of electricity is ensured. The same applies to Sri Lanka, where there is no dearth of highly qualified professionals in the energy sector. We can be certain that our professionals in the power and energy sector would have foreseen the inevitable and warned the relevant authorities of the looming crisis.
Of course, what they wouldn’t have had control of was the foreign exchange reserves required to purchase fuel for the purpose of electricity generation. That is an overarching financial policy issue for the government about which, the government’s chosen spokesman on the subject, Governor-turned-politician-turned-Governor, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, is supremely optimistic about.
If Cabraal’s fairy tales are to be believed, all it takes is a bit of innovative ‘debt restructuring’ at a local level, not as the International Monetary Fund would want us to do, and we would come out of this foreign exchange crunch with our heads held high, our national pride intact and with plenty of dollars in the bank!
If only a nation’s finances were that simple to manage, Governor Cabraal could, with the stroke of his pen, release some funds to the CEB to pay the CPC, fuel would be purchased to generate electricity and we would all live happily ever after without having to worry about power cuts.
What really happened instead was that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa summoned Ministers Udaya Gammanpila and Gamini Lokuge and officials of the CEB and the CPC for a discussion. At the end of the meeting, Rajapaksa directed that funds be released for the CEB to pay the CPC to the tune of Rs. 93 billion. This would allow the CPC to supply fuel to the CEB which would then use that fuel to generate power and avert immediate power cuts- at least for the next few days.
Of course, this begs the question that, if all took was a presidential directive to achieve this, why wasn’t that issued much earlier, thus avoiding all the angst about power cuts among average citizens and corporate entities?
The answer is that, Rajapaksa’s directive is not a complete resolution of the issue. It is a temporary measure to overcome the prospect of blackouts maybe for the coming few weeks at best. The longer term supply deficits remain and longer lasting solutions need to be found for them.
What we have witnessed thus far is gross mismanagement of a critical national issue, aggravated further by two ministers on ego trips and engaging in one-upmanship at the expense of the public.
The latest we have heard on the issue is that the Chairman of the CEB, M.M.C Ferdinando has tendered his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa citing “personal reasons”. Rajapaksa certainly has had to deal with more than his fair share of resignations lately but questions remain as to whether Ferdinando is being made a sacrificial lamb for the powers that be to save face.
It seems that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, despite having absolute power at his disposal, simply cannot get the country’s power distribution right.
