Corruption taints recruitment for Korean, Israeli jobs

Colombo, Nov 23, (Daily Mirror) - The recruitment of Sri Lankans for around 1000 employment opportunities offered by Israel recently is mired in controversy due to lack of transparency in the process, Daily Mirror learns.

Besides, the Sri Lankan mission in Tel Aviv has strictly been asked not to make any public remarks about these employment slots for work in the agriculture sector of that country.

The offer is a government to government contract and therefore the youth selected for work in Israel are not required to pay anything more than the approved fees involved.

However, there are complaints about agents of politicians charging more for selecting people for new employment opportunities.

A source familiar with the process said the approved rates will amount to around Rs.300,000 and therefore there is no need to charge extra from prospective job seekers. An informed source said Israel offered a quota of 2000 jobs as caregivers for Sri Lankans but the country had been able to send only 650 so far.

Besides, Daily Mirror learns that the authorities of South Korea are also perturbed over corruption involved in the selection of employees to be sent under the quota offered to Sri Lanka. Job seekers are charged exorbitantly when selecting for employment through the selected agencies. “When people are asked to pay so much, only a few people can do. Therefore, all the slots have not been secured yet,” the source said.

Several attempts to get a comment from the Foreign Employment Promotion Minister Manusha Nanayakkara failed.