Right to reply
A five page notedescribed as the matters discussed at a meeting held on 28th November 2017 by some accountants is being circulated among members. As the views said to be expressed by the participants is totally misleading and distorting the truth, clarifications for those views need to be presented. However as the note is unsigned, any person aggrieved by the comments made here is requested to refer his or her issue to the distributor of the said note.
It is better to begin at the beginning.
History and inherent features of the association
The Sri Lanka Accountants’ Service Association formed on the latter part of 1950s is one of the oldest associations. The association had never been a professional association or a trade union. It was similar to that of the associations representing other staff grades. Main strategy of these type of associations was either to discuss their issues with the political authority and making appeals and writing letters to the administrative authorities. If the issues are unattended by the respective authorities, the next step was either to be silent or repeat the same process after some time. However the Annual General Meetings had been held continuously, having some lapses due to various reasons.
The trade union activities of most of these associations were totally aimed at gaining the same rights enjoyed by the Sri Lanka Administrative Service which had grabbed the powers of the key institutions responsible for granting pay hikes and creating posts. Therefore it was a popular slogan to win the same rights once they are granted to SLAS. However complete success in these efforts was not possible and actions to win those rights did not go beyond the traditional discussions and correspondence with the authorities.
One of the inherent features of our association was the least participation of its members in the union activities. Even though new proposals and suggestions had been requested at every nomination for the AGMs, members’ contribution had been minimal. Sometimes they had been limited to the pay hikes, promotions etc. Therefore past presidents and secretaries of the association such as Mr. Maithee Piyasena, Mr. Lalith R de Silva, Mr. A. M. P. Amarakoon, Mr. Ivan Tissera etc had to lead the main role using their personnel capacity, while the members awaited until everything was fulfilled by them. And a considerable number of members did not at least pay their membership fees to the association. As an example, the unpaid membership fees as at 31st March 2006 stood at R. 1,135,784.00 at Rs. 240.00 payable by the members each year. This was equal to the value of three and half years total membership fees.
Even though the members had not contributed their membership fees, AGM s had been held and those members had participated enjoying the refreshments and lunch at the cost of other members. The association could tolerate this as no other major expenditure was incurred by the association. For the first time in history the association had to write off the arrears of membership fees in 2013 to the value of Rs. 555195.00, which was equal to the value of two years total membership fees.
Change of the course of actions of the association
At the time the responsibility of the association was taken over by us, the main issue of the service was the non-approval of the service minute. It had been under the lock and key of the former Deputy Secretary to Treasury since its approval from the then Accountants’ Service Board. All the correspondence and discussions with authorities had come to an end without success. Therefore it was decided that every possible means other than traditional discussions and meetings should be applied to overcome the backlog. As a result of that decision, poster campaigns, joint union actions, media conferences, picketing, sick leave campaigns, having a meeting with all the members with the then presidential candidate, using parliamentarians to raise the issue in the parliament and court actions were initiated. Finally the long awaited, long delayed service minute became a reality in 2010 with the decision of the Supreme Court.
As a result of the above drastic changes, there was a sharp increase in the expenditure of the association. Many accountants made a separate contribution for the legal actions, but some refrained from paying while enjoying the benefit of the promotions earlier than other senior accountants.
Apart from this, the association arranged two events with more than 100 retired accountants to honor them. These events were held with the participation of their colleagues in active service. All the senior most accountants participated at the event in which Mr. A. M. P. Amarakoon was also honored. No additional funds were collected from members. In addition to that, the association initiated a payment of Rs. 25000.00 for each diseased member and close relatives of the members. For this too no additional funds were requested. The cost of all these matters were borne by the same members who continuously paid their dues while the others including those participated at the above meeting neglected their duty. As this could not be continued, repeated appeals were made to these members who turned a deaf ear to such appeals. Finally the association totally abandoned the above two welfare matters.
Some members attempt to justify their non-payment of fees saying that the association has done nothing for the service and has failed to hold the AGM. This is only an attempt to hide their guilty conscience. The following facts will make the members understand the credibility of their comments.
As already mentioned, the service minute was approved in 2010. Promotions to class 1 were initiated from 2011 onwards. Some officers who attended to the above meeting were able to get promotions to class 1 posts by passing many senior accountants. Everyone in the service knows how it happened. Before the approval of the service minute, promotion to class 1 was made on a supernumerary basis with 18 years of service. Many were unable to get permanent posts and they had to retire without the benefit of the vehicle permit. After 2010 the cadre of the class 1 doubled and as a result of this, those who had earlier been promoted on the supernumerary basis and many other accountants with 10 years’ service were able to be promoted to class 1 during the period between 2011 and 2014. Sad to say, this is the period during which many accountants benefited under the above promotions had neglected the payment of membership fees. Were the promotions a punishment for them to give up paying membership fees? The pedigree of all the accountants with regard to the payment of membership fees will be published in the near future.
One more has to be mentioned here. A payment of a special allowance of Rs. 15000.00 had been proposed for every category of SLAS. It was going to be approved by the Cabinet. The association published this injustice through media and brought this matter to attention of political authority. The chief accountant to the office of the Prime Minister and several other members contributed in this matter and finally the allowance was approved for all the services. Some officers paid Rs. 5000.00 to the association in settlement of all the previous arrears while the majority of members totally neglected their responsibility. How can anyone justify the non-payment of the annual fee of the association while enjoying the above benefits?
Now your attention is drawn to the comments made by the participants of the above meeting.
Mr. K. D. Chitrapala, Municipal Treasurer
He had said that no constructive work had been done for a long period of time. It is clear that he is speaking of himself. He is a member who has never made any proposal for the benefit of accountants and who has never engaged in union activities. He has at least been honest to describe himself. He has further said that certain senior posts of accountants are held by other services as a result of the inactiveness of the association. We request him to give a single example to prove what he says.
Mr. A. M. P. Amarakoon, former president of the association.
He contacted the General Secretary of the association on the day the above meeting was held and the association described him what has happened and requested him to ask the participants of the meeting to name any matter unattended by the association so far and whether those present had done their only duty to pay the fees. We are unaware whether he had done so. However nearly a month ago the association contacted him to inform him the actions taken by the association with regard to the special grade promotions in which he and 197 senior retired members had been neglected. The association got an appeal signed by the senior retired members such as Mr. T. M. R. J. Cooray,Mr. P. M. Rathnapala, Mr. T. D. Alhapperuma, Mr.Sunil Jayapala and several others to be sent to the Public Service Commission and had arranged two meetings with the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration. Finally those senior members met the PAC member, parliamentarian Mr. Vijitha Herath to request to raise this issue at the PAC. Later Mr Amarakoon too was informed of this issue. The association has been active in every matter even though some members are inactive all the time.
Mr. P. T. Madurawala, Retired Accountant
He has said that an association of retired members has been established and discussions had been held with the association to hold a general meeting. Mr. Madurawala who was sleeping since his retirement had never participated on the issue of the retired accountants described above or discussed with the association. However he had been able to get the information of what the association had done with regard to the said issue. Knowing nothing of the facts and figures of the issue, he had sent a letter to the PSC asking to expedite the matter. The conveners of the above meeting are requested to ask him the nature of the issue and the facts and figures of the case. It seems that he is trying to grab the reins of an already moving chariot.
Mrs. K. V. C. Dilrukshi
We do not believe that Mrs. Dilrukshi had made such a comment with regard to the membership. If she wants to pay the membership fees there is no barrier for that.
Mr. K. A. C. Shamantha
He is one of the members who met the then minister Mr. Vasudeva Nanayakkara with the association to inform him the injustice caused to accountants and later this discussion led to the establishment of a separate Public Accountants Committee to consider the grievances of the accountants. We regard him as a member who genuinely wanted to do something for the accountants. However his comments need a clarification from our part. While accepting the non-payment of membership fees is an issue, he reiterates that the same thing cannot be taken as an excuse for not holding the AGM. He further says that fees may be collected only from the officers willing to hold an AGM. If this is reasonable, then only those members will be entitled to attend the meeting. This might have been done even in the past with the members paying the dues. But how difficult it is to implement such a thing and how it can be justified is to be considered.
Mrs. Champa Balasooriya
Her suggestion to have one organization is welcome. And she suggests collecting fees at the time an AGM or special general meeting is held. And she has made her comments regarding the submissions of the nominations. We would like to remember the last Special General Meeting held on 31st January 2013. The main issues to hold such a meeting was the non-payment of membership fees and non-submission of nominations. The meeting was held giving a wide publicity among members. The meeting held at the BMICH was attended by only345 members out of nearly 1400 accountants. This is the same period the accountants were being promoted to class 1 under the newly approved service minute. Mrs. Balasooriya, Mr. Shamantha, Mr Jayamaha, Mrs. Dilrukshi and Mr. Madanayaka who attended the Special General Meeting might have remembered the proceedings of the meeting.
In that meeting a decision was taken to call for nominations and the members were requested to pay their dues to hold the AGM. When the nominations were called, nobody came forward. When it was requested for the second time only six members responded apart from the existing officers. The response to the payment of fees was the same. Mr. K. D. Chitrapala who now dreams of constructive work, did not attend the meeting which was held at arm’s length. Therefore he also should practice what he preaches.
Mr. K. S. Withanage, Chief accountant, Mt. Laviniya MC
He had commented that there is no unity among members. Unity in a service does not exist where the members are fighting with each other for posts, popular stations etc. and going after politicians and secretaries for same. The fight among members in this regard is disgusting. He attributes this as a failure of the officers of the association. We challenge him to show any such incident connected with the officers of the association.
Mr. P. W. S. A. Wijesingha and Mr. Dimuthu Wijesingha
The association does not make any comments said to have been made by them. They should understand the nature of the association and its members by going through this letter again.
Mr. S. W. Madanayaka
The association always had a dialog with him over the matters of the service and in the past he had engaged in distributing the writings of the association within the Ministry of Finance. However the association does not agree with his comments.
He had said that the members had been compelled to settle their issues individually as a result of the instructions and the support are not being given by the association. And he has further said that some members had to seek legal advice alone on such matters. The association refutes these allegations. Given below is an account of how the association attended to such issues and how Mr. Madanayaka was sleeping at the same time.