President takes over police with fresh Gazette

• All financial institutions under Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa

President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a new Gazette bringing the Police, which was earlier under a separate Ministry, under his purview and coalescing a slew of new departments, institutions and State corporations under the Finance Ministry.    The assignment of functions and duties of the Ministers has been Gazetted in the Extraordinary Gazette No. 2096/17 issued by President Maithripala Sirisena on 5 November with regard to the allocation of functions, duties, departments, and State corporations for the new Ministries.

According to the Extraordinary Gazette, Sri Lanka’s Police Department, which was under the Ministry of Law and Order, has been brought under the purview of the Ministry of Defence. President Maithripala Sirisena is the Minister of Defence and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

According to the Gazette notification, 42 departments, statutory institutions and State corporations have been assigned to the Finance Ministry. During the last Government, these institutions were under several Ministries.

During the last three years, the Central Bank was not under the Ministry of Finance. It was given to the Ministry of Economic Affairs under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The National Lotteries Board and the Development Lotteries Board were functioning under the Ministry of External Affairs. In addition, the State banks, including People’s Bank and the Insurance Corporation, functioned under the Ministry of Enterprise Development.