Posts, Telecommunications and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera has not been able to shake off the criticism he has attracted for his highly improper act of getting Sri Lanka Telecom to settle his credit card bills for expenses incurred during overseas travel. Ever since the first embarrassing press expose, aggravated by the revelation that SLT's Japanese chief executive had privately settled one bill using his personal resources, the minister has been trying to defend the indefensible and throwing wild punches in various directions.

Last week's cabinet news briefing was the latest such occasion. There the minister went on record saying that as plain Mangala Samaraweera he would be content to get himself an inexpensive meal at the Saraswathie Lodge or enjoy a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine by a riverside, presumably in Britain, where he was once a student. But as Minister Mangala Samaraweera "I eat lavishly, I spend lavishly and I entertain lavishly.''

It is quite obvious to any reasonable person that if a minister of the government is travelling abroad on official business, it is the business of the government to meet his expenses. If the per diem allowance authorised by the state for this purpose is inadequate, those affected can make a case for increasing such payments. This has been done in the past and, no doubt, will be done in the future. It is quite wrong for any minister or official to arrange for private parties, state agencies or joint equity companies like Sri Lanka Telecom to pick up their bills. This is especially so, as in the present instance, where the minister concerned is responsible for regulating and supervising that organisation.

That is one aspect of the question. The other is the "lavish'' spending that the minister airily spouts. There must be an understanding among all public officials, both elected and appointed, that we are a poor country. The majority of our people are struggling to make ends meet. In such a situation, nobody should do the grand with tax money. If a minister is travelling abroad, no reasonable person would grudge him the facilities that would enable him to adequately perform his official business. But the "lavish spending'' that Mr. Samaraweera talks about just will not wash. Certainly not if he is spending public money.

Many of our ministers and officials on foreign visits are often the guests of host governments. Despite that they are paid their usual per diems by Colombo. Many such fortunate persons regard such windfalls as perks of office and cheerfully pocket the profit although, if it were strictly proper, they are entitled to draw only 25 percent of their regular subsistence and lodging allowances if a host government or organisation is picking up the tab. There have been and hopefully still are many officials, both elected and appointed, who conduct themselves strictly according to the rules. But there are many others who do not. The pity is that the establishment has not adequately hammered home the message of what is right and wrong, what will be tolerated and what will not.

Over the years the systems, procedures, controls and practices governing public expenditure have been slowly but surely coming apart. For example gifts that an official may receive from his host in the course of conducting government business is supposed to belong to the government. But how many bureaucrats or politicians would play it that way? With the proliferation of state agencies all kinds of improper practices have spawned like mushrooms after the rain. Ministries running out of allocated resources think nothing of getting departments, or better still corporations, under them to incur all kinds of expenditure on their behalf. These can vary from pumping petrol into ministry vehicles to much bigger things.

Every member of the public is only too well aware of the abuse of the postal facilities by the elected representatives of the people. MPs think nothing of allowing their free mail services to be used by all kinds of people for all kinds of purposes. Just a few days ago invitations for the annual convention of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, at which both President Kumaratunga and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe were participants, were sent under official cover. This is an expense that must properly be borne by the SLMC itself and not the taxpayers of Sri Lanka. But who cares? In one of his first budget speeches Prof. G.L. Pieris referred to this abuse of the mail by MPs and pledged to stop it. But nothing has happened.

Given the situation we are in and the speed at which old values and prudent practices with regard to public expenditure are crumbling, justification of Mangala Samaraweera's credit card spree will only weaken controls that must be tightened. The minister is not willing to make public the credit card statement itemising his expenses met by Telecom. It is up to the president to ensure that the ministers, especially, set the right example. Precedents of bad examples are legion but that is no excuse for continuing to do the wrong thing and justifying it.