To get maximum benefits:

Workshop on PSC for state officers

'In addition to traditional internal work done in Parliament by the ministry, new training programmes have been initiated to educate staff of ministers and public officers at executive level, Minister of Parliament Affairs Sumeda G Jayasena said, adding that the officers would be educated about the Parliamentary Select Committee and the law enabling the public to get the maximum benefits while implementing development programmes.

The minister said so, while inaugurating a seminar conducted for officers at the parliamentary complex yesterday (26) morning.

This workshop was organized by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and conducted throughout the day.

Divisional Secretaries, Directors, Assistant Directors, Officers in the Executive level of the Administrative field, participated in the workshop.

As suggested to the President before submitting the budget for last year, this workshop was organized by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Ministers and Members of Parliament too highlighted the necessity of this workshop.

The minister said that Divisional Secretaries and Directors had been entrusted with wide responsibilities due to extensive development programmes under way in rural areas, adding that the workshop would enable the officers to discharge their duties efficiently to the satisfaction of the public, while enabling them to obtain maximum benefits out of the development programmes.

The Parliamentary Petition Working Committee had been unable to respond properly to the petitions received from the public, as the Committee did not have proper guidance from the officers.

Therefore, petitions received from individuals had been accumulated in the districts without any responce for years. The minister said the guidance of officers was imperative to respond properly.

COPE Chairman and Senior Minister DEW Gunasekera disclosed in his briefing that many institutions did not have proper finance management, while several macro enterprises had done business without an estimated plan.

He further said that a colossal amount of money had been drained out for rural economy and departmental officers should be notified in this regard.

The minister further said that State institutions were to be categorized in the future, such as high-income earning and low-income earning institutions without both profit or loss and institutions running at a loss, adding that future plans would be initiated, a press release from the Department of Information said.