President’s Secretary Mr. Saman Ekanayake has given written instructions to all ministry secretaries today (September 09) to make special arrangements for public expenditure management.
The President’s Secretary has issued these instructions to all the Ministry Secretaries informing that the State Ministers appointed by the President with effect from yesterday (08) should be facilitated according to those terms in carrying out their duties.
President Ranil Wickramasinghe has emphasized that all authorities should make every effort to use the people’s money spent by the government sparingly and with maximum efficiency, taking into account the severe economic difficulties that the government has to face in the current economic and social climate of the country.
Accordingly,
1- A separate budget head is not allocated for government ministries. A secretary will not be appointed for those government ministries and the most senior additional secretary should be employed among the additional secretaries of those ministries to facilitate the work of the government ministers under each scope. A senior assistant secretary who is currently in the ministry should be employed on a full-time basis to assist the said additional secretary.
2- The staff requirements of the ministry to which the relevant state ministers have been appointed must be met from the currently approved staff. Requests for the creation of new posts should not be submitted to the Department of Management Services.
3- For maintaining the offices, facilities should be provided within the office premises where the relevant cabinet ministry is currently being maintained.
4- Only the private secretary of the support staff of the state ministers is entitled to get an official vehicle, and the overtime and composite allowances of the private secretary’s official driver should be dealt with in accordance with the circulars issued by the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government.
5- Only 02 public vehicles should be reserved for other officers of the support staff. Other reserve vehicles owned by the Ministry should not be used for the needs of the said officers.
6- Management Assistant, Development Officer, Office Work Assistant and Driver should be selected only from among the permanent civil servants. Those drivers can receive a monthly overtime allowance subject to a maximum of 150 hours and their monthly composite allowance is entitled to a maximum of 08 days.
7- The communication allowance should be provided for the private secretary, coordination secretary, press secretary and public relations officer subject to the approved maximum limit, and the communication allowance includes data usage, international telephone charges, monthly fixed charges, taxes and other charges.
8- Mobile phones should not be provided at government expense for support staff.
Accordingly, this order has been issued by the President’s Secretary on the instructions of the President amending the documents CA/1/17/1 and the letters issued on May 14, 2010, entitled “Management of Public Expenditure” and the provisions mentioned in the letters with amendments made from time to time.