Tender Boards, Katunayake runway and the day an DA asked JRJ to "go to hell"

Two non-technical officers confound the experts

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Among the numerous responsibilities that Secretaries have to discharge, is the one of being Members or Chairmen of various Tender Boards. In fact most senior public servants are faced with this duty. But in the case of Secretaries, in addition to their own Ministry Tender Boards, above a certain financial threshold, they are appointed to large and important ones of other Ministries by the Cabinet.

In my case, I kept on being appointed to some of the largest and most difficult ones. Some of these were controversial, where previous tenders had been canceled and fresh tenders ordered, due to allegations and other controversies.

Usually I was given the added burden of chairing these controversial boards. This happened under several governments. Perhaps, the fact that I chaired the Food Purchase Board of the Ministry of Food, which was responsible for the purchase of food commodities, of the order of about Rs. 5 billion a year, for a period of over 12 years without any problem or complaint, might have had something to do with this. In government, if you have been deemed to have worked well, additional burdens are cast on you, but no additional remuneration. All governments generously reward you with more work and additional responsibilities.