No plan to lay off public service: Minister

• Steps will be taken to improve productivity instead 
• Senior Presidential Advisor Duminda Hulangamuwa  earlier said country would have to downsize public sector workforce  from 1.3m to 750,000
• Criticizes previous governments for recruiting graduates as development officers in an ad hoc manner

By Kelum Bandara 

The government has no plans to lay off the public service, but will focus instead on improving productivity, a minister said.   

He made such remarks in the midst of calls from various  corners for downsizing public service as a revenue-strengthening  exercise for the government   
Public Administration Minister Prof. Chandana Abeyratne  told Daily Mirror that denial of employment would only trigger another  crisis, and therefore it would not be considered. He said the government  would take measures for productivity enhancement of public service.  Also, he said productivity would be looked into when making recruitments  in the future.   
He also said graduates had been recruited as development  officers in an ad hoc manner with no attention to productivity aspect in  the past under different governments, and it would also be corrected in  steps.   
Sri Lanka will not be able to afford a large public sector  in the near future and will soon need to start reducing the number of  state employees, a senior advisor to the president said yesterday.   

However, earlier, Senior Presidential Advisor Duminda  Hulangamuwa said that the country would have to downsize its public  sector workforce from its current 1.3 million employee base to 750,000  employees.  

“I can tell you that as we move forward, the funds available in the Treasury will not be enough in the coming years. We can’t afford to have a large public sector. So, we need to rationalise  public services, cut down the numbers and move towards digitalisation,” Hulangamuwa said at the BETA Annual Report and Accounts (BARA) Awards of  the Association of Public Finance Accountants of Sri Lanka (APFASL), held at the BMICH recently.   

Besides, Talal Rafi, an economist, said public service costs the government Rs.1,700 billion a year in terms of salaries and  pensions, and it is the biggest drain.   

“Even if the state sector is reduced just by 25 per cent, that will save the government around Rs. 400 billion a year. It is equal  to the cost of three Katunayake-Colombo expressways,” he said in a post on X.        

• Even if the state sector is reduced just by 25 per cent, that will save the government around Rs. 400 billion a year