Govt. to fast-track legal procedures

By Charumini de Silva 

State Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne reassured that the Government was committed to provide essential resources needed to speed up the legal process of the country, which is causing injustice to people who are waiting for resolutions.

Delays in the legal system were a major factor holding back the economic growth of the country, he said addressing a post-Budget forum in Colombo last week. “I think we all should push towards speeding up the legal procedures. It is one main reason holding back the economy and it is causing injustice by the people who are waiting for resolution for their problems As a Government we are committed to provide essential resources that are needed to speed up the legal process,” he added.  However, noting that they cannot interfere in the judicial process, he saidit was for those in the judicial system to fast-track.

Wickramaratne outlined inefficiency in the public sector and politicisation as two other major drawbacks in achieving a speedy growth for the economy. He accused the former Government of doubling the number of public sector servants in a short span of time. “The question I often ask is whether the doubling of public sector employees increased the services it provides to the citizens or did they improve thelevels of efficiency in their services? The answer is a clear no!” Despite some of the best minds being in the public service, the Sate Minister said the system did not allow getting the best out of them.

“Unless you build a voice against that[politicisation], politicians will always be susceptible to basically collect their votes. So we need to build a voice against it,” he urged.

Emphasising that it is a high priority area of concern, the State Minister said it was something that the Governmentcould not do on its own and called for stakehozlder support to build and be observant in this regard.