“Our government has to strike when the iron is hot. We must make every attempt to take advantage of the opportunity given to us by the COVID19”
by Professor N.T.Sohan Wijesekera
Managing COVID19
We in Sri Lanka can consider ourselves fortunate if our government could contain COVID 19 at manageable levels. Even though the opposition political parties have not shown their complete satisfaction, thus far, the “track, isolate, test and treat” approach of the government appears working well to reduce the danger. Social media keeps on sharing home remedies. The other remedial options as recommended by western and native doctors remain a variety of steam inhaling, frequent drinking of hot water and coriander, application of onions, social distancing, bed rest and seeking hospital assistance. This is all about COVID 19 you will come to know even if you stay glued to your television or keep calling your friends and loved ones.
***Government’s claim that the “best services are provided under trying conditions” is facing increased challenge by many who ask the question “Can’t we do better than this?”. This is a situation we could use for our advantage.
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As a result of government actions we are either under partial or full curfew. We are either unemployed or working from home. The government with the help of private sector and armed forces is making efforts to ensure a regular supply of essentials. Those with a permanent employment are receiving salary for working from home. Unemployed and pensioners are given relief packages. About food, medicine and water. Sri Lankan government with the help of private sector and armed forces is making efforts to ensure a regular supply of essentials for those under lockdown.
Government’s claim that the “best services are provided under trying conditions” is facing increased challenge by many who ask the question “Can’t we do better than this?”. This is a situation we could use for our advantage. It is an opportunity for the government machinery to perform regular soul searching exercises to deliver services with improved quality at optimum cost. At the same time those critics should continue but while providing feasible alternatives for improvement. I would like to take this opportunity to invite the government to provide information about their planning and information and take a critical look back to patch the gaps. At the same time an invitation is extended to the critics to express the details about their alternatives to help the government and make the situation better.
Out of the Box Thinking
While we are battling the dire situation created by COVID19, it is prudent for us to evaluate the status of the country in the short, medium and long term. Let us take a look at our country’s situation. We already had a poor foreign exchange situation. Our economic growth rate in 2018 was 3.2%. Expected value for 2019 was 2.9%. Asian Development Bank in a report released on the 3rd of April 2020 indicated that Sri Lanka’s economic growth is projected to fall to 2.2% in 2020 and would recover moderately to 3.5% in 2021. This means that by the end of 2020 we would be in a position much worse than that was in 2018.
We need not be economists to realize our plight after COVID19. In a rose garden without flowers, the thorns with thrive. Travel bans of US, Europe, Australia and many other countries would result in a crash of tourist industry. This will affect not only the hotels, travel guides, places of attraction and the food industry but also our ailing national airliner. Our overseas workforce that contributed to the economy with valued foreign exchange is now either in the country or are queueing up to return to our shores. The slowing down of other economies around the globe is certain leave the garment industry high and dry.
In order to survive, we have to either stop imports or we need to think out of the box to boost our foreign exchange. Therefore, our option would be to cut down the non-essential imports and to boost our exports. Government is already curbing the imports. It needs to also put forth support for feasible alternatives.
This leaves us with our traditional exports. There will be a new world order spearheaded by the young demanding a nature friendly life style. We in Sri Lanka would have to look at exporting organic products. World will move from post-harvest technology to post harvest handling and more towards care, refrigeration, and transport. We may have to ground our passenger air crafts and expand cargo carriers to export fresh vegetables and fruits. In very simple terms, innovative thinking and methods, based on our traditional nature friendly systems would be the most needed to bring back our economy. We have to build resilience. Our research community must tirelessly work on renewable energy (e.g. solar energy capturing, transmission and storage). We must urge the Ceylon Electricity Board to move away from its colonial thinking to walk with us in a nationalistic path. According to the Sri Lanka’s FY 2020 road map published by the USAID using latest available data, our export sophistication which measures the diversity and ubiquity of exported goods, key markers that can help gauge economic sophistication and resilience is at a low value of 44%. Therefore, we all must have our brains working at full stretch to find avenues to earn or save the much needed foreign exchange. The government must have a dedicated mechanism to capture these seeds and turn them into fruit bearing trees.
Productivity and Opportunity
We have to work smart. We have to work effectively. We need to ensure that our productivity levels are high and comparable with those of the developed nations. Achieving a higher productivity means delivering the same output with lesser resources. Therefore, achieving a higher productivity is definitely a contribution to strengthen the economy.
Enhancing productivity levels require the identification of resources to execute a particular project or to deliver a particular product. As the first step an employer needs to know the time and human resources assigned to deliver a particular task. Once this is known, a productivity expert can say whether such allocations are appropriate or efficient.
Now let us check the fundamentals. In our organisations, do we have our tasks identified, quantified, time lines fixed for delivery of a quality output. Are all employees working for a target? In order to capture this, we need to find out about the employees who execute a particular task and those who check the quality of the output. Once this is done then the next is the job of independent evaluators to ascertain whether our systems are productive or otherwise. Are our systems and processes working or are they just talk shops? More critically, do we have systems and processes in place?
The COVID19 gave us the opportunity to perform the acid test. Our government without a prior notice sent our organisations to a state of “Work from home”. The government told the organisations to hold their meetings online. Requested the managements to use online technologies and telecommunication facilities to deliver goods. The government requested the institutions and managers to put their best foot forward.
The one-month period spent under “Work from home” is good enough for our government to perform a look back and then find out our strengths and weaknesses. This is the time to find out whether the agencies could identify the tasks they need to achieve the objectives. This would be a good exercise for both agencies and the government. An agency can check the accountability of each person while Directors, Board of Managements and the Government can capture whether the agencies are on the same wavelength. Sri Lankan government must ascertain whether its units are working towards economic development and environmental sustainability.
Our country is about to implement an exit strategy. Its commencement is around the corner. If the government simply ends the “work from home” period without a meaningful, quantitative revisit, then the country loses a golden opportunity. The top management of the government must act now. They must close the stable door before it is too late. The state without losing any more time must close the doors and keep its stallions under control. The government must get all ministries and line agencies to spell out their tasks, resource allocations, issues and constraints faced during the acid test period. We have to get them documented. Just closing the doors won’t be adequate. We need to make hay while the sun shines.
The next would be to correct the shortcomings and move forward to achieve higher productivity levels. If we could link each agency to an online system that enables the management to recognise and manage the tasks in hand with optimum use of resources, then we have made the full use of our COVID19 opportunity.
Requesting each agency to develop their own online project execution and monitoring system at short notice is a long shot. This is because according to the previously mentioned USAID report, Sri Lanka’s Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Adoption index is at a woefully low value of 26%. In our opinion this low figure may not be because of the lack of infrastructure. Mostly it is due to the lack of soft skills and lack of willingness to use computers and networks. This is considered as the biggest bottleneck in our system. We must target to acquire frameworks that enable “work from anywhere”. If a majority of our work force can be made accountable when working from their homes, then the savings from travelling, office lighting, air conditioning, fuel, wear and tear and stress would alone contribute positively to our economy.
It is time for the government to assess its ICT datum and get the services of ICT application experts to develop meaningful and practical management tools. We need to get the services of our best in the industry and we need the help of many such personnel.
***Requesting each agency to develop their own online project execution and monitoring system at short notice is a long shot. This is because according to the previously mentioned USAID report, Sri Lanka’s Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Adoption index is at a woefully low value of 26%.***
Online resource allocation and accountability assessment systems can be built from scratch but it is not necessary. Today, they can be bought over the counter. There are many tested systems widely used in developed nations. There is a high likelihood that some are already with our private sector. Recommendation of such systems can be provided to us by Sri Lankan project managers already using them in developed nations. This is the time to muster all our forces.
In order to avoid a pipe dream situation, it is necessary for the government to take the leadership and direct its lead ICT agency to identify a system which can then be customized to suit individual institutional requirements. Once identified, then bulk licenses can be negotiated for the use of all line agencies. However, such a selection must be done with wisdom and caution. It cannot be done single handedly. This is a task that has to be executed with great responsibility.
Lastly, the COVID19 has made us to think about the discipline amongst our nation. Let me leave the discussion about the benefits in a disciplined nation, to those who read this article.
Finally, COVID 19 has given us an opportunity. Knowingly or Unknowingly we have faced the acid test. The ingredients are in place. Our government has to strike when the iron is hot. We must make every attempt to take advantage of the opportunity given to us by the COVID19.
Professor N.T. Sohan Wijesekera is a Senior Professor, University of Moratuwa and the Chairman, Construction Industry Development Authority. Read more about his works here
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