'Ensure professional development through continuous learning'

Rasika Somarathna

Senior public service officials must upgrade their knowledge through continuous learning to ensure professional development and excellence, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga said.

The Secretary said so, at the inauguration of a workshop on 'capacity building' for senior officers of the state sector at Mount Lavinia hotel. The fourth in a series of five workshops organized by the Presidential Secretariat and the Commonwealth Secretariat began on Saturday.

Weeratunga said a commitment to excellence requires continuous learning. "Frequently assess yourself and look for key skills that need improvement," he advised.

Weeratunga noted that he too, continued to learn from all modes possible, including the actions of junior officers, adding that such an attitude would help state officials to become competent officers and excellent leaders.

"Continuous improvement is a means to ensure meeting increasing expectations of the public," he added.

Weeratunga recalled President Rajapaksa declaring 2013 as the 'year of excellence in public service' during his budget speech in November and the top rank of the public administration service that they should take the lead in achieving that goal.

In this endeavour he pointed out that team work, commitment, skills and honesty were the key ingredients and urged the officials to cultivate them and set an example for lower rankers to follow.

He advised them on numerous strategies and tools to adopt when improving efficiency and urged them to be innovative and techno-savvy.

He urged them to set clear organizational goals and strategies, establish right priorities and measures, review implementation of strategies against the plans, establish management systems, establish a culture of finding ways of improvement in contrast with the culture of finding faults, use scientific analytical tools and statistical tools that provide new insights into performance, etc. to improve efficiency.

Commonwealth Secretariat, Human Resources Management Advisor, Omar Moulana, also spoke extending Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma's greetings to the initiative. Sri Lanka Management Institute Director B. Wijeratne, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury B. M. S. Batagoda and Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry Secretary P. B. Abeykoon also spoke.