Apparently there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the recent island wide power cut that happened a few nights ago. I slept on the floor cos it was so hot.
Speculation is rife that electricity board workers executed it on purpose in protest of indications that the government is trying to privatize the CEB.
This itself is surrounded with rumor and speculation with certain quarters of the government denying it and certain others giving the impression of being on the fence. There are accusations that the government is ’selling’ the CEB to pay off debt. There is also some weird IMF bailout related story going about, the details of which are slightly unclear to me.
The electricity board, like all other government departments, is ridden with corruption. A lot of tax money goes into paying idling workers who usually get employment created for them at government agencies after helping out in election campaigns. There are huge inefficiencies which translate into additional costs to the utility paying public; taxing them on both ends.
Further privatization will clean this up; I’m sure huge profits can be made just by clearing up the corruption and inefficiency in the system alone. But controls need to be put into place to ensure that corporate greed doesn’t manifest in another ugly monopolistic situation later on.
Whats shocking is realizing all over again the complete lack of transparency with which most things happen in Sri Lanka.
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