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Lanka has Asia's highest ratio of public servants to citizens

by Rashomi Silva and Meredyth Lewis

"A World Bank report says there are 700,000 public servants in the Sri Lankan Public Service, which means there are 3.1 public servants to every 100 citizens in the population. This is the highest rate in the ratio for public servants to the citizen in Asia", said Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary to the Prime Minister and the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Distance Education for Public Servants (DEPS) at the inauguration of the comprehensive orientation program for group leaders conducted under the DEPS project on Thursday.

The participants were selected by the Ministry of Public Administration and Reforms, taking into consideration their educational background, leadership qualities and suitability to facilitate the program.

The project has been set up to upgrade the skills of the public servants' and increase their proficiency in information technology. It aims to stimulate thinking amongst public servants of the country to change dated attitudes and adopt new methods to be more creative and proactive when dealing with their day to day activities.

In this way, DEPS hopes to rejuvenate the public sector making it more effective and efficient. Improving skills, changing the mindsets of the public servants and providing them with proficiency in Information Technology are the main goals of this project.

The Norwegian founded DEPS program is implemented by the worldview Global Media under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Administration, Management and Reforms.

The training will take a multimedia approach varying from group led discussions and web learning to TV and radio. In the first phase of training, approximately 6000 executive rate public servants will be benefited. The web based learning will comprise of modules up-loaded fortnightly.

It will also serve as a support network to group leaders and participants in the program. Computer training centres have been set up for public servants to improve their knowledge of IT in various parts of the country, in addition to the computer training, public servants in Colombo have cyber cafe facilities free of charge at J. R. Jayawardene cultural centre. Weerakoon said by introducing the concept of distance learning to the administrative service, the Ministry of Public Administration and Reforms, DEPS and SLIDA have taken very crucial measures to bring about a more dynamic public service. A large number of public servants will be benefited, and it will help to promote a more efficient and effective public service.

The government spends large amounts of funds on the administrative service but the question remains, is an average citizen getting value for money? The government is of the view that a smaller administrative service would be able to provide a better service to the public.

Therefore, the government might consider the idea of freezing further recruitment and to concentrate more on improving the quality of the public service.

He said good governance will also improve the human rights record of the country. Speaking with years of experience as a civil servant - as it was called then, Weerakoon said the system had been apolitical and free from outside influences. Therefore the administrative sector had been able to provide a better service to the public. "The introduction of information technology is an urgent need of the administrative service. With that the administrative service can go forward with the developing and rapidly changing world".

Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Charitha Rattwatte said that public administration had been relatively free from political influences before the constitutional change in 1972, which abolished the Independent Public Service Commission.

Since, then there had been a drop of quality in the administrative service but the government intends to bring back the Independent Public Service Commission, and create a free atmosphere where the government servants can work more freely and with dignity.

Rattwatte emphasised the importance of having gender equality at the higher administrative levels and said the government is concentrating on promoting gender balance in high offices.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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