Around 550,000 grads recruited in eight years

Ridma Dissanayake

The number of government employees has increased to 1.4 million under the Mahinda Chinthana future vision. The number of government servants in 2004 was only 800,000 due to privatisation of state institutions and other assets, Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W D J Seneviratne said.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa put a stop to the privatization of state institutions and assets, which was the trend between 1977 and 2005. State institutions were made more people friendly, efficient and effective institutions in the past seven years," he explained.

"We have recruited around 550,000 graduates to the government sector during the past eight years to create an efficient and effective public sector, " the Minister said.

"Sri Lanka today is reaping the benefits of our efforts in establishing a public friendly state service, "he said. "We have recruited doctors, nurses, administrators, accountants, planners and teachers and have also increased the salaries of public sector employees.

Public sector salaries have been increased by 150 percent when compared to the year 2004.", Minister Seneviratne further said.