Public Sector inefficiencies: Unfortunately whether you work or not, monthly wage is guaranteed, says Minister

Labour efficiency and better land usage with modern technology are the main ingredients required to compete in the global market, according to an entrepreneur-turned- politician.

Daya Gamage, one of the wellknown entrepreneurs in the country and now the Minister of Primary Industries, expressed this view when he addressed the ‘ Meet the Minister’ event last week organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

He expressed his displeasure in the overall government services saying they were ‘ inefficient’ because of the lackadaisical approach. He noted that some are ‘ not working’ because whether they work or not their salary is ensured.

Coming from the private sector, Mr. Gamage said that in the private sector everyone has to work hard for their remuneration and thus inefficiency has no place in the private sector, which is ideal to meet the global market. The state sector should emulate the private sector efficiency.

“I am also an entrepreneur and I entered politics when Ranil Wickremesinghe contested for Presidency in 2005,” he said. Entering politics he faced a lot of difficulties and noted that had he joined ( former President) Mahinda Rajapaksa he would have received a high position in that government.

Stressing on the inefficiency in the government service, Mr Gamage said that the number of government servants which earlier stood at 500,000 was increased to about 1.5 million during the time of the earlier government, creating high redundancy. Under his ministry, he said that the cadre was 72, but they are putting up with only 47 and making an effort to improve efficiency with a lesser number of recruits.

He said that the government is burdened with heavy loans obtained by such institutions like SriLankan Airlines, Ceylon Electricity Board, etc but despite this burden the present government has managed to pay the government servants an additional Rs. 10,000, whereas they in the private sector are struggling to increase the remuneration of their employees by Rs. 2,500.

He cautioned that the global economy is collapsing and thus Sri Lanka faces stiff competition with other countries. Therefore, he said that labour efficiency, high productivity and better land usage with the application of the latest technology is necessary otherwise Sri Lanka would lag behind and fail.

Businessmen and industrialists who were present spoke about the difficulties they face and the taxation system with negatively impacted onh their industries and businesses.