Fighting economic crime during the pandemic: a Sri Lankan perspective

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the dual crisis in Sri Lanka during the pandemic. The health crisis was followed by democratic backsliding which directly impacted the fight for economic crime. The pre-pandemic political commitment to fight corruption is assessed with the pandemic environment and the policy decisions by the Government. Sri Lanka was a detailed case study of how politicians exploited the pandemic environment to suppress democracy and move their semi-autocratic agenda forward. However, Sri Lanka was not the only nation that faced such autocratic sentiments losing the democratic values. This paper discusses recommendations for improving the resources and investment to address economic crime in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachSecondary data was used for the analysis introducing a theoretical framework referring to the work of Michel Foucault and Francis Fukuyama. The secondary data was used to develop an argument aligning political science with economic crime.FindingsThe Government disciplinary project launched during the pandemic directly impacted Sri Lankan democracy and structural changes made to the constitution. The heavy militarization was a sign of departure of long-cherished values of democracy in the country. Political clientelism backed by nepotism interfered with judicial independence and the fight against economic crime. Many accused, including those responsible for the largest corruption scandal, were not punished. The trust deficit has widened significantly between authorities and the public on fighting corruption in Sri Lanka.Research limitations/implicationsThere are more factors for democratic backsliding than what is presented in this paper. The economic crime environment in Sri Lanka has many dimensions and the paper only highlights a few areas limiting to the secondary data available.Originality/valueThe paper discusses a unique perspective on how a pandemic could be misused to strengthen the autocratic rule and make structural changes to a nation, including constitution amendments. The pandemic environment was used to commit economic crime and suppress public opinion projecting the health crisis in the lockdown environment.