• Says no one can simply decide to increase salaries overnight
• Former President was lying, as he knows that the decision he had made cannot be implemented so easily
• There is a proper procedure to increase state employee salaries

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya recently claimed that the former President deliberately misled state employees by promising them a salary hike. 

Addressing a meeting yesterday, she said that she had heard the former President claim he had increased the salaries of state employees and secured the necessary funds.

She said the former President was lying, as he knows very well that the decision he had made cannot be implemented so easily. No one can simply decide to increase state employees’ salaries overnight.

“There is a proper procedure to increase state employee salaries. Treasury approval should have been obtained after the decision was made. There is a correct way to do this. But an announcement was made during election time simply to deceive the public,” she said.

She added that, upon hearing this, people were pleased. However, when it came to implementing the decision, the Treasury stated that they had not been advised to allocate the necessary funds.

She claimed that Ranil Wickremesinghe did this intentionally.