Browsing by Author "Kanchana, D.G."

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Accountability in Local Government Institutions of Sri Lanka: A Study of the Hali-Ela Pradeshiya Sabha
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Kanchana, D.G.
Accountability was a basic argument of establishing the local government system in Sri Lanka with some adjustments in time to time. Currently, accountability does not mean that just being showing the accounts to the hierarchical institutions and the local government institutions have to be accountable in a pluralistic way. In other words, there are dimensions of accountability namely; Political accountability, Legal accountability, Administrative accountability, Professional accountability and Social accountability. All these dimensions of accountability are questionable in local government institutions of Sri Lanka. This study has questioned that why and how these dimensions of accountability are in problematic by giving special reference to the Hali-Ela Pradeshiya Sabha which is being challenged by a lot of criticisms due to inability of maintaining the proper accountability. This Hali-Ela Pradeshiya Sabha is located in Badulla District, which belongs to Uva Province. The legal background of all establishments of the Pradeshiya Sabhas is same but the way of functioning is not equal at all. Accountability issues in Pradeshiya Sabhas may arise not only because of the laws and regulations, structure, selection process of members, human and physical resources, etc., but also because of institutional culture, population matters, ethnic diversity and environmental factors. Especially, the institutional culture always depends on the characteristics such as workers‘ attitudes, environmental surroundings, ethnic diversity, etc. The Hali-Ela Pradeshiya Sabha area has been selected as the study area since it includes all these ethnic and cultural diversities and therefore the people‘s needs are also complex in nature. The Hali- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha has to be proactive to provide the services to the people by ensuring the accountability. The study conducted based on the qualitative data. In data collection, content analysis and case study method have been used. The use of case study method to analyze the critical information related to the practical scenario of the accountability of this institution was helpful. The descriptive analysis method has been used in the data analysis. The findings show that all forms of accountabilities have been challenged due to inadequate communication among political representatives, administrators and people in the Pradeshiya Sabha area. Not only due to political and administrative conflicts for the Pradeshiya Sabha functions, there cannot be seen collective actions towards enhancing the accountability while providing a quality service delivery to the public.
Challenges of Learning Tamil as an Official Language: A Study on Public Sector Officials
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kanchana, D.G.
There are large numbers of laws, government circulars and implementing agencies in which the language policy should be implemented to improve bilingual skills of the public sector officials. When it comes to the Sinhala officials, there is a huge criticism on the impracticability of use of Tamil in providing the public sector services. The officials themselves blame on the process and the methodologies of teaching and learning of the Tamil. Though it has passed more than 50 decades for the enactment of the Language policy in Sri Lanka, the effective use of Tamil language in the provision of the public sector services by the Sinhala officials cannot be seen. They are quite hesitated to serve in the Tamil populated areas as well. The daily administrative life is vulnerable in those areas due to inadequate bi-lingual and multi-lingual skills of the Sinhala officers. In addition, a monolingual culture is yet prominent at the Divisional level since the majority of Sinhalese‟ learning abilities are significantly low. In reviewing the literature, it revealed the literature gap to conduct a study related to this issue and to find out the challenging factors. The prime objective of this study was to find out the challenges that are faced by the Sinhala officials in learning and using the Tamil as their second language by giving special reference to Delthota Divisional Secretariat which belongs to Kandy district. This office has selected as the case study since it provides its services by representing all ethnic and cultural diversities and therefore the officials have to communicate the people using both Sinhala and Tamil languages. The study has used mixed method approach and use of questionnaire survey, Case study, and the Content analysis method were significant as the data collecting means. For the questionnaire survey, total sample size was 40 and the purposive sampling technique was followed. Secondary data collected from the sources such as published books, government websites; policies; Acts and Circulars. The descriptive analysis method was used in the data analysis. The finding revealed that learning Tamil as a second language by the Sinhala officials has not significantly affected in improving their performances and was only useful to fulfil the basic requirement for the salary increments. Challenges occur due to difficulties in adapting with the traditional teaching methodologies, study materials and inadequacy of well-trained Tamil teachers.
Globalization and the Developmental Role of a State: The Sri Lankan Experience from its Independence to date
(Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kanchana, D.G.
National states have to manage their developmental activities by responding to globalization. Globalization is not a totally new thing which has come far away from the state and its behavior. It is also a result of states’ activities. But, states and their developments have been threatened by the globalization. Actually, globalization opens windows for lifting up the levels of states in a positive way by making opportunities such as technology improvements, collectivism, providing aids, knowledge sharing, etc. It also opens the windows for threats towards states’ development. This study was focuses on this issue and there were two main objectives; firstly; to identify the role which is played by the state of Sri Lanka in managing its development in an increasingly globalized world from its independence in 1948 to date and secondly; to find out the challenges which are being faced by the state in Sri Lanka in managing its development with global impacts. The study is based on qualitative approach and by using the content analysis method; secondary data collected from the sources such as published books, journal articles, websites and government’s reports. One can conclude that the global process is biased towards the developed world whereas developing countries like Sri Lanka faces enormous troubles. The Sri Lanka has taken many steps to develop its capacity as a prerequisite to the development, i.e. enabling an environment for doing businesses (its business density recorded as 0.51 by 2012) and use of e-governance in curbing corruptions. Globalization and its means sometimes lead to internal political struggles since the party politics and their political agendas are shaped by them. Due to the contextual mismatching of the reforms’ initiatives which were introduced by the donors, the country has lost its conventional administrative framework too. Sri Lanka has become a fragile state through the economic liberalization policies―e.g. the country has lost the indigenous strength of the stock market and it cannot bear the sudden market failures which always happen in the international market.