On April 25, 2019, the MCC Board of Directors approved the five-year Sri Lanka Compact. It was days after the Easter Sunday mass murder. The controversy of this bilateral-corporation agreement should worry all Sri Lankans.
1. MCC has to be signed and passed by the Parliament of Sri Lanka making MCC a domestic law similar to the 13th Amendment (Section 6.4) and impossible to remove. If Compact is only for five years why pass it in Parliament?
2. Foreign Personnel and Ser vice Firms given entry/work visas (Section 8.3) – how many, for how long, and who pays them and what component of funding will go to them is not given.
3. MCC granted full immunity(Section 6.8)a
4. GoSL delegates all of MCC Compact activity administration to a Private Company(Section 2.6) – its board comprises GoSL Secretaries (can public sector senior officials be employed in a private sector capacity while working for the public?)
5. But, GoSL undertakes responsibility and accountability for all that this Private Company– MCA Sri Lanka does (Section 3.2)
6. MCA-Sri Lanka is a private company set up in Sri Lanka to function as GoSL’s ‘primary agent’ responsible for ‘exercising the Govt’s rights and obligations to oversee, manage and implement the Program and Projects.’ Is this legally/constitutionally allowed?
7. MCA-Sri Lanka ‘shall have operational and legal independence and full decision-making autonomy’ including ‘the ability, without consultation with, or the consent or approval of, any other party, (how can public servants be given full autonomy to take decisions as they like. Isn’t this major conflict of interest)
1. Enter into contracts in its own name (MCA-Sri Lanka)
2. Sue and be sued
Establish an account with a financial institute in its own name (MCA-Sri Lanka) and hold MCC Funding in that account
* Expend MCC funding
* Engage contractors, consultants and/or grantees, including without limitation, procurement and fiscal agents
* Competitively engage one or more auditors to conduct audits of its accounts Program Implementation Agreement will provide further details of the scope of MCA-Sri Lanka Board of Directors and ‘Management Unit’ Board of Directors (11 voting mem bers 2 non-voting observers) – each Board Member can be represented by an ‘alternate’ but be an ‘Additional-Secretary” or equivalent.
Two non-voting observers are CEO of MCA-Sri Lanka and MCC
Resident Country Director.
1. Representative from President’s Office
2. Representative from Prime Minister’s Office
3. Secretary to the Ministry of Finance
4. Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation
5. Secretary to the Ministry of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms
6. Secretary to the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development
7. Secretary to the Ministry of Highways, Road Development and Petroleum Development
8. Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and Development of Dry Zone
9. One Private Sector Representative
10. Two Civil Society Representatives
Management Unit – comprises CEO and ‘directors and officers as agreed upon’ and supported by appropriate additional staff – number not given.
Any additional staff must have MCC approval (the GoSL ends up taking orders from a foreign corporation)
8. MCA-Sri Lanka has to prepare Stakeholder Engagement Plan consistent with International Finance Corporation Performance Standard for the Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts and satisfy stakeholder committee structures by MCC’s Guidelines for Accountable Entities and Implementation Structures.
www.mcc.gov/content/uploads/2017/05/mcc-oceo-guidelinesforae.pdf
9. MCA-Sri Lanka private company is given access to all of Sri Lanka’s state records (how can a country’s information be given to a foreign corporation?)
10. MCA-Sri Lanka though comprising Board of Govt. Secretaries must take permission from MCC to engage any entity of the GoSL ‘Implementing Entity Agreement’. ‘Fiscal Agent’ ‘Procurement Agent’ all appointed meeting criteria of MCC.
(Annex 1 – 37)
11. MCC funding dependent on GoSL implementing Bim Saviya (transferring deeds to title registration) and Land Special Provisions Act (converting State land permits and grants to absolute freehold rights-all land in Sri Lanka to be privatised) Parcel Fabric Map base for GoSL to complete inventory of State lands in the same district to help GoSL to determine ‘which State lands are underutilised and available for investment’
(Annex 1 – 28-29)
12. Parliament passes MCC Compact but MCC funds to do Parcel Fabriic Map of only 28% of land (seven targeted districts– Anuradhapura / Kandy/ Kegalle/ Kurunegala/ Matale/ Polonnaruwa/ Trincomalee/) (10 land registries out of 35 land registries) MCC will also fund the scanning and digitising of valuation of property files in these seven districts. Valuation will be linked to property registration system and digital fabric map using a unique parcel identification number. This is a violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens as Parliament is passing an Act that is spending for only seven districts (28% of land)
13. GoSL has to undertake transfer of remaining 35 land registries via bim-saviya from deed to title registration at its cost. Has the GoSL costed this – where do they get money for this when they will have no land to tax after privatization?
14. MCC will fund State Land Inventory – mapping and inventory of State Lands vested in State institutions in those seven districts (eSlims – Electronic State Land Inventory Management System) “a basis for the State to determine the rights of citizens who are occupying State lands and gather available documentation for the citizen’s claim to the land for future adjudication” (Annex 1-29)
15. GoSL undertakes to provide MCA-Sri Lanka all data by Commissioner General of Land, as custodian of State Lands in Sri Lanka for entry into eSlims (Annex 1-29)
16. GoSL took a loan and paid US firm $154m to cadastral mapping of Sri Lanka in 2017 (1 of 5 activities under MCC Land Project) – Is this part of MCC or is it falling under GoSL cost. Exactly how much is GoSL incurring against this $480m to be given in chunks across five years? How much as GoSL spent so far given $154m has been paid to this US firm?
17. US embassy advertised for company to do e-Land Registry (1 of 5 activities of MCC Land Project)
18. GoSL undertakes to do
1. Bim Saviya (private deeds to title transfer) – only 600,000 out of eight million private properties has been transferred since 2006 under 1998 Title Registration Act (Bim Saviya)
2. Converting permits and grants of State land to ‘absolute land grants’ registered as freehold rights through Land Special Provisions Act (the previous Govt failed to pass this Act)
MCC Funding is condition to enacting Registration of Titles Act 1998 and passing LSPA
19. MCC Land Project allocated
funding is $67,
Parcel Fabric Map and State Land
Inventory - $23,400,000.00
Deeds Registry Improvement -
$11,400,000.00
Land Valuation System Improvement
$6,500,000.00
Land Grants Registration/Deed
Conversion $19,300,000.00
Land Policy and Legal Governance
$6,700,000.00
Total - $ 67,300,000.00
(Article II-39)
20. MCC will fund hiring of staff for policy research group – Land Policy and Legal Governance Improvement Activity (5thLand Project Activity of MCC) GoSL to provide location for LPLG Group in State location – Annex 1-31 (does hiring staff include paying salaries and does GoSL have to foot maintenance cost of location)
Note: MCC funding is dependent on
l implementation of Bim Saviya program transferring deed system to title registration.
l State Land Privatization Act (Privatizing all State Land)
21. MCC requires GoSL to ‘maintain’ the land information technology (“IT”) systems and provide budget funding for the maintenance and updating of software and hardware of each year during Compact Term (5years)
22. MCC requires GoSL to ‘maintain in place all legislation’ required to implement the Land Project
23. MCC requires GoSL to ‘make sufficient resources available to ensure that registration of land parcels’occurs in timely manner
24. MCC requires GoSL to provide all data necessary to MCC for monitoring and evaluations of the outcomes of the Land Project.
25. Though there is a ‘Monitoring and Evaluation Plan’ which must follow MCC’s “Policy for Monitoring and Evaluation of Compacts and Threshold Programs” (MCC M&E Policy) M&E Plan can be modified without requiring amendments via MCC website (which means 24×7 someone will need to be monitoring MCC website for changes)
26. A 2 a) Program Description says MCC will offer ‘greater economic growth and poverty reduction” but Land Project Constraints Analysis says ‘private sector finds difficulty in accessing land for investment purposes’ ‘the objective of the land project is to increase the availability of information on private land and under-utilised State Lands in order to increase land market activity”.
The five land activities aim to address this problem. This is again highlighted in
27. If State land is to be privatised – does the State land have land to tax?
28. When Land Ministry and Central Bank units are already in place for Research Activity – why is a group of external parties allowed access to State confidential records?
29. Has GoSL factored in the danger of giving US all our intellectual property rights for past-present and future? This hype about digitising – artificial-intelligence where all back office is controlled by US eventually means (Section 3.9)
Case Study MCC Madagascar
admin.theiguides.org/Media/Documents/USAID_Land_Tenure_Madagascar_Profile.pdf
Just think about the dangers for Sri Lanka now and in the future
In 2016, the International Criminal Court broadened its mandate to include land grabbing as a “crime against humanity”, which it will now prosecute.