Govt. committed to better working environment for public workers: PM

 Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and State Minister of Development Banking and Loan Schemes Shehan Semasinghe at the Finance Ministry meeting yesterday 

• Emphasises importance of circulars enabling workers
• Focuses on importance of carrying out Govt. programs despite challenges 
• Assures construction companies of timely payments 
• Prioritises paddy purchasing scheme and SME moratorium  

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said circulars issued to various Government institutions and departments should enable the public sector to work better and not the opposite, pledging to create a better working environment for State employees. 

Rajapaksa had made these statements while chairing a high-level meeting with department heads at the Finance Ministry yesterday, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s media unit. 

Rajapaksa had taken the opportunity to update ministry officials on the multiple tax relief and tax moratorium efforts that have been rolled out during the last two months, which were largely overseen and driven by the Finance Ministry. 

During the meeting he had stated that under the previous Government, public servants had faced challenges when carrying out their duties and acknowledged that some difficulties may still remain when working on directives issued from the top levels of Government but that efforts would be taken in the near future to resolve such bottlenecks. 

“The Prime Minister gave instructions to carry out the ‘Sapiri Gamak’ village development program and assured the small and medium-sized contractors that steps will be taken to pay them for the work carried out. He stated that the contractors would be paid for their work without any delays,” the statement said. 

The Prime Minister had been apprised on the constraints of working on a Vote on Account, which was passed last year ahead of the Presidential Election and is valid until April. A Budget will only be passed after the General Election, restricting the funds that can be made available for development programs and capital investments. Mismanagement of finances by the former Government had also contributed to a larger than expected Budget deficit for 2019, the statement added. Earlier this year the Finance Ministry said it estimated that the Budget deficit for the last year was about 5.2%. 

However, the Prime Minister had emphasised the importance of continuing key Government programs, including the paddy purchasing scheme and the loan moratorium for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Government has called for all SMEs with loans below Rs. 300 million to submit their applications for the moratorium by the end of this week. 

“Prime Minister Rajapaksa reiterated the importance of supporting SMEs to improve their businesses and not to pay excessive attention to the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) report when evaluating loan applications from SMEs.”