Circular issued to reduce public sector to minimum staff, carry out only essential services

• Latest circular from Public Services Ministry further shrinks staff from earlier 50%
• Says all rosters must be strictly adhered to, no pregnant officers to report for duty 
• Quarantined public officers to get paid leave

The Government yesterday issued a circular stipulating that all essential services should be carried out with minimal staff but in an uninterrupted manner and said any quarantined public officer would have their quarantine period covered as paid leave.

Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government Ministry Secretary J.J. Rathnasiri issuing the circular, called on relevant officials to reduce staff to a minimum, from the earlier 50% allowed, and said rosters should be strictly adhered to. 

The main points of the circular are given below. 

The Secretaries of Ministries/Heads of Departments/ Heads of Institutions concerned are given the authority to decide to call the minimum staff required to carry out the functions of the Government without interruption, for service. 

Even when such a minimum number of employees are called for, a shift or other formal roster should be followed. 

When such duty roster is prepared, action should be taken to deduct the date on which the officer does not report for duty from his/her personal leave only if the date of absence falls within the duty roster. 

As per the above instructions, steps should be taken not to call pregnant officers for service in Government institutions. 

However, every officer should be prepared to perform the tasks relevant to his/her duties online, even on the days when the officer is not called for duty under the duty roster. 

The following guidelines should be followed when calling officers and the public to workplaces in line with the guidelines issued by the health sector to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

a) Encourage the use of pool vehicles, reserved vehicles and personal vehicles of the officers, instead of public transport, whenever possible.

b) Restrict public access to workplaces except for essential matters.

c) Taking actions at all times possible to meet the requirements of the service recipients through online methods.

In cases where a certain public officer has been directed for quarantine process due to the prevailing situation, and further that such direction has been made not as a punishment for violating the rules of quarantine imposed by the Government, the period of quarantine should be considered as a period of leave with full pay as per the provisions of subsection 12:9, Chapter XII of the Establishments Code. 

The heads of institutions should personally ensure that officers in their institutions adhere to the health instructions, which have already been issued, as well as those purported to be issued in due course by the Government for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

It is also emphasised that this circular intends to maintain essential Government services without interruption, maintain Government agencies as COVID-19-free zones, prevent Government officials from being exposed to COVID-19, prevent their family members from becoming infected, and reduce the spread of COVID-19 virus.