The authorities had had a hard time in getting the members of the Diyawanna council staff to attend a US-sponsored workshop held exclusively for them recently.

Three resource personnel from the UK had delivered talks at this workshop on Strengthening of Parliamentary Administration. The lectures by the foreign experts had gone over the heads of most participants as they had not been provided with Sinhala translations of the proceedings, they say.

The authorities responsible for conducting the workshop had been compelled to press the staff members time and again to participate in the proceedings as the rows and rows of empty chairs were a source of keen embarrassment to all concerned.