Political appointments erode working culture of state institutions – Anura

The UNP, the SLFP and the SLPP are responsible for the overstaffing of the public sector, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake says.

“A lot of people are now talking about the overstaffing of government institutions. How did this happen? There are people coming from Matara to Colombo port everyday in five buses. There are two buses that come from Kuliyapitiya to Isusrupaya. Two buses come each day from Ratnapura to the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment. God knows how many buses come from Badulla to hospitals across the country. This happens because there were ministers from the above-mentioned areas in charge of these institutions,” the JVP leader said on Thursday.

Dissanayake said that the same people who had overstaffed state institutions now pretended that the JVP was responsible for the surplus workforce in government institutions.

“Let’s look at Universities. Qualified academic staff is low in almost all universities, there are shortages everywhere. However nonacademic staff is through the roof. This is because its harder for a minister to fill up academic positions. To be recruited to the university academic staff, a graduate should have a first or second upper class dirision pass for his or her degree and has to go through the interview process, which is very tough. But it’s easy to recruit nonacademic staff members. Minister Kanchana Wijesekera says he can run the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation with 500 people and that Ceylon Electricity Board can operate with 50 percent staff. Well, that’s good to know. Go tell that to your colleagues that sit next to you,” he said.

The JVP leader said that more than the financial burden in the form of salaries, politicized staffing has a detrimental impact on the working culture of state institutions.

“The driver is a stooge of the minister. He won’t even listen to a director. These stooges are impolite to people who come to government institutions. Given that they have nothing to do, they would make it harder for people who actually have work. Soon, the output of the institution goes down. This is what has been happening to us since 1977,” he said.