President Clinton praises Lanka's post-tsunami reconstruction activities - Minister Amunugama

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Former US President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery who made an official visit to Sri Lanka last week to look into the progress of post-Tsunami reconstruction activities has highly praised the manner in which both the Government and its people had acted immediately after the Tsunami catastrophe giving an example to the entire world on ways and means of assisting people during a sudden disaster.

"Especially Former US President Clinton has praised the keyrole played by the country's State service and its employees for taking all possible measures to provide immediate relief to Tsunami victims. As the Public Administration Minister I am really proud on this statement made by the Former US President," Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama said.

The Minister made these remarks following an inspection tour made to the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), Colombo last week.

The Government will further take measures to establish a more satisfied State sector in the country, he said.

The Minister said at present a total of 800,000 to one million employees work in the State sector. In addition, there are about 430,000 pensioners. Altogether nearly 1.5 million are connected to the State sector.

"During the time I was the Finance Minister, I made attempts to give State employees complete job satisfaction. If the case of any plan formulation it is the State employee who represents the key factor which helps to implement that plan from rural to urban level," he said.

Dr. Amunugama observed that there has to be a certain truth behind the statement in favour of effecting changes to the country's State service.

I think researches conducted by the SLIDA may focus attention on this issue. The most important fact is to systematically train the State employees. It should be mainly done through institutions like SLIDA.

The Minister said there is a big mistake in our education system. Since the Donoughmore era, although a large amount of money has been invested on education, it has failed to yield satisfactory results. "Therefore, we should move towards a new education system away from the British education system. Those who complete their education should be trained relevant to their subjects.

Meanwhile, they should practically understand the requirements of the people.

The training programmes conducted by the State sector should always lay emphasis on the ways and means of satisfying the people who deal with the State sector, he said.