President Ranil Wickremesinghe has focused on increasing the powers of Ministry Secretaries to prevent delays in service to the public through public service. A discussion was held between the President and the Public Service Commission Chairman and its members at the President’s Office last Friday (28) where this matter was discussed at length. The discussion had focused on introducing necessary reforms to the government service, providing an efficient service as well as the introduction of a code of conduct similar to ones existing in the United Kingdom and Canada for the government service.
It has also been discussed here to introduce a ‘score’ system from next month to review the performance of the secretaries of the ministries.
Under the review programme, the performance of Secretaries will be monitored based on program implementation and coordination with ministries and government agencies and other criteria, said a senior official at the President’s Office. He said that the ability to coordinate with the concerned minister and other ministries and disputes with other officials will also be considered in the evaluation process.
Under this programme, those who score above 65 will be retained in the same Ministry and those who score between 50 and 65 will be considered for transfer. Action will be taken against those who score less than 50 marks, the official said. They may also lose the post of Ministerial Secretary and the contract of those on contract basis may be terminated. A quarterly report will be sent to the President for follow-up actions on officers.
As a prelude to the introduction of this system, the President’s Office has already started monitoring the performance of the Ministerial Secretaries. The objective of the programme is to ensure better and efficient service to the people, the official said.
Add new comment