By Sanath Nanayakkare
Mahinda Siriwardana, Secretary to the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance recently warned that any policy inconsistency in handling the economy or veering away from the current fiscal consolidation programme would lead to disaster with no hope of future bailouts for Sri Lanka.
“The Public Finance Management Bill should have been brought many years ago. How many drafts were made – how many years were spent – before it was eventually finalized? We waited till we had our ‘back hit the ground’ to bring this. Why couldn’t we bring it earlier? There are several other things also that we should have done to avoid the crisis, but we didn’t,” he said.
“I am saying this from my personal…