COMMENT | Will there be accountability for Covid-19 funds?

COMMENT | When some things don’t add up, can a gun help balance the accounts? It is not in the least suggested that this methodology be used, but in times of crisis, one learns valuable training on transparency and accountability.

It was two weeks after the tsunami hit north and east Sri Lanka on Boxing Day in 2004. Photographer Raj Kumar Soman and I were inside a huge zinc-roofed store – the logistics hub of the Tamil Tigers in Killinochi in Sri Lanka - where a lorry load of donations from Malaysians were being unloaded. With clipboards in hand, we were monitoring the unloading when a boy, who could be no more than 15 approached us.

“What are you doing?” he asked. We explained that we have to account for all the boxes because these were donated by generous Malaysians for the people affected by the tsunami.

“You sit down there, sir. If anyone touches any of these boxes, I will but a bullet in his head.” It was ...