Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana yesterday said that there will be no recruitment in the public service for another three years due to challenging economic situation in the country.
“As per the agreement entered into between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it is not possible to allocate provisions for new recruitments and the payment of salaries to those personnel”.
However, the Minister said that the Cabinet gave approval for the recruitment of a group of drivers and conductors focusing on the mandatory accessibility to public transport.
The Minister was speaking at a ceremony to present appointments to a group of new drivers and conductors at the Ministry.
A group of employees who had lost their jobs at the Board for various reasons including not reporting to work also received their appointments on this occasion. After examining the appeals submitted by this group of staff members who had lost their jobs for various reasons including not reporting to work, a selected group was reinstated.
Minister Dr. Gunawardhana said that Rs 20 Billion is required for the provision of season tickets to schoolchildren around the country. “However we have been allocated only Rs 10 billion”, he said.
The Minister added that he hoped to make a special request to the Parliament and reserve the remaining amount.
The SLTB provides Sisu Seriya bus service to 5,331 schools around the country and hundreds of government servants make use of this bus service daily, he said.
“Considering all these matters, after we assumed the responsibility of this ministry, an engineer with vast experience in the field was appointed as its Chairman without any political affiliation”, he said.
He added that special measures are being taken to stop theft, fraud, corruption and malpractice in the Board and anyone found guilty of financial fraud will lose their jobs.
He added that an investigation unit has been set up under the leadership of a former Deputy Inspector General of the Police Special Task Force to take immediate action on this matter. “Every day, nearly Rs 10 million from the income of all the depots of Sri Lanka Transport Board is lost due to financial irregularities. In order to curb this situation, we are working to introduce a digital payment method that includes the QR method for issuing tickets within another two months”, he said.
