Private Ventures vs Public ‘Ventures’ – By Oscar EV Fernando

Let us take two cases of projects done in society-service and business; the motive to do a service is not to make profit but to serve people-which in no way means to make wanton losses but to at least breakeven; but is there such an effort made for that in our service projects-no it is not done-revealing why and how our economy reached bankruptcy level.

This misnomer has played havoc in our country exemplified with just two projects-public transport and telecom; those of a certain vintage would recall how only one or two companies ran on different routes thereby having minimal road accidents and making good profit; it was then nationalized calling itself The Ceylon Transport Board and how the CTB contributed to the recent bankruptcy only the treasury will bear witness!

The same will hold good for telecommunication that was running at a loss at the time when the Brass Buttoned Black Coat appeared long after reporting a fault; the difference that followed privatizing is to say the least miraculous; no wonder all those dignified Boards ran us down to bankruptcy with all the ‘Kommis’ hidden under that Black Coat!.

All institutions whether profit based or not are often categorized as Ventures-but are they? To be a venture all employees in the project are expected to be on their toes-daring with heart head and muscle to make profit on the project and all workers whether white collar or labor must dare and do or dare not and be sacked. This is the norm to make profit in a private venture as against a State ‘venture’

In the so-called state ventures the daring is seldom needed with work coming their way as a matter of fact with the employees doing their dutiful job to earn a pat on their back from the boss-thus such an institution survives, due to political backing or due to the monopolist nature of its product-such as insurance-electricity or water and these institutions cannot but help making profits or losses.

Those of a certain vintage will recall how the business of insurance was carried out when it was in private hands-employees would be on toes visiting consumer homes with the promise of a better service than the other; All this was contributing more to add value to the product and an overall contribution to the GDP.

Other examples to quote would be petroleum-electricity-water and public transport-all of which instead of contributing to profit of the venture and contributing to the GDP, pulled the country to bankruptcy!

If the public transport system-which during the good old days were in private hands continued, we would not have witnessed these frequent road accidents as each competing company would have been allocated separate routes to run with promising ease. So also, the case of insurance obviously making profit while seats are being warmed by employees with business falling on their laps and thus making profits due to the monopolistic nature of the product! 

The mixture of private public; “ventures”-is a concoction of a sort being a haven for the so-called Komis Kakas making hay while the sun shines-thus contributing to the bankruptcy of our economy: if we think beyond the surface, it is a clash of two opinions that have dominated the world-communism in China and Russia and capitalism-in US and several other countries.

Most readers would know that both Russia and China are distancing away from communism-whilst we in Sri Lanka are still on the dose of that concoction-detrimental to the economy.

A lesser dose of that concoction in a mild form is now in vogue and is referred to as PPP-Private Public Partnership and this is worthy of attention by powers that be, in the context of the two extremes facing a get together and that for the betterment of our country!

Oscar EV Fernando

November 2024