The tale of a swimming pool

Nine years ago, the Badulla Municipal Council started constructing a swimming pool to be used by children. Ten million rupees has been spent on the project up to date. Yet the pool is not ready.

“This is an instance which illustrates the misuse of public funds,” says Mr Zuhair, a nearby resident. “Mosquito infestation has increased. The stench from the water is unbearable. A stray dog or a cow invariably falls into the pool at least once in two weeks polluting the water in the pool and the people of the area have to remove the dead animals. I had to pull out a dead dog even last week.”

Mr Zuhair says that that despite informing the officials repeatedly, a solution has still not been found.

Mayor Upali Nissanka Gunaratne agreed that there is a basis for the concerns raised by the public. Pointing out that the money used for the project is what has been collected by the     Municipal Council in the form of taxes, he admits that he is caught in a dilemma whether to spend more money on the pool which is found to be sub standard. He said that he hopes to take necessary action once he receives the report from the audit division which is conducting an investigation into possible malpractices that have taken place in the construction of the pool.

Meanwhile, files containing information relating to the expenditure incurred in construction work are reported missing. However, civil societies have alleged that information about the missing files has not been officially communicated to the public. The Mayor admitted that there is some truth in the allegation.

“Its true… I looked into this after I was elected. The initial files are missing. They have been misplaced. But not all files have been misplaced. We still have a considerable amount of information with us. There is no necessity for the municipal council to keep this information away from the people. If any civil society organization requests me to provide information, I will be obliged to provide them with that information.”

However the Mayor was unable to state an amount that has been spent on the construction of the swimming pool. He said that, to say the least, it’s even difficult to state the amount roughly in lakhs as the documentation of the expenditure is extremely unclear.

Former Mayor M.D.A Hemachandra stated that, this was not a construction done autocratically. “This was done after a collective decision was taken by the council. The plan was made by the officials of the Sports Ministry. All the plans are in my possession.”

“Unfortunately Badulla was flooded during the initial stages of the construction of the pool and there was some damage to the construction after which the original contractor stopped work. Then we got a second contractor and completed the construction to an extent. The work that is left to be done is very uncomplicated and basic.”

He also said that this was the first time that he heard of the allegation that the files were missing.

Mr. Hemachandra said, “I had handed over all the papers and files to the relevant authorities when I vacated office. This is a surprising story.  Nothing has gone wrong in this project. If a proper audit is conducted malpractices will be discovered if there has been any. ”

A senior officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service told TISL that even if one rupee has been misused, an inquiry should be held and the guilty parties should be taken to task.

He added: “Ten million rupees in Badulla is a lot of money. All that is the tax money paid by the people. As a public official I have taken immense pains to expose this act. I have not given up that effort. However, the public and the civil society organizations which should have benefitted from this money, do not show enough interest in this issue.”

It does not seem that the representatives who have been elected to the municipal council have debated this issue extensively. Something has gone wrong somewhere.

Many are the questions to be asked:

•Where does a swimming pool fit among the  priorities of the people of Badulla?

•Was a feasibility study done before selecting the low lying land? if so, what is contained in the feasibility report?

•Was a proper procedure adopted when selecting the contractor and making payments to him?

•Who are the contractors of this swimming pool? Are they qualified to build swimming pools?

•Should the people treat the misplacement of public records lightly?

•What are the deficiencies that you think are existent in this system?

•What can you do as a public officer, people’s representative, civil society organization or as a citizen who is concerned about good governance?